Immortality II
No; lovers yet shall tell the nightingaleSometimes a song that we of old time made,And gossips gathered at the twilight aleShall say, “Those two were friends,” or, “UnafraidOf bitter thought were those because they lovedBetter than most.” And sometimes shall be toldHow one, who died in his young beauty, moved,As Astrophel, those English hearts of old.And the new seas shall take the new ships homeTelling how yet the Dymock orchards stand,And you shall walk with Julius at Rome,And Paul shall be my fellow in the Strand;There in the midst of all those words shall beOur names, our ghosts, our immortality.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Immortality II is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Immortality II, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/immortality-ii.html, id L23027.
Form and metre
Immortality II is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB-C-CDEDE-- nightingaleA · madeB · aleA · unafraidB · loved · toldC · moved · oldC · homeD · standE · romeD · strandE · be · immortality
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| No; lovers yet shall tell the nightingale | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Sometimes a song that we of old time made, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| And gossips gathered at the twilight ale | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/·· |
| Shall say, “Those two were friends,” or, “Unafraid | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Of bitter thought were those because they loved | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Better than most.” And sometimes shall be told | 10 | /˘···˘/··· |
| How one, who died in his young beauty, moved, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As Astrophel, those English hearts of old. | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| And the new seas shall take the new ships home | 10 | ·········· |
| Telling how yet the Dymock orchards stand, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| And you shall walk with Julius at Rome, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And Paul shall be my fellow in the Strand; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| There in the midst of all those words shall be | 10 | ·········· |
| Our names, our ghosts, our immortality. | 11 | /·/·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.