Love’s Personality
If I had never seenThy sweet grave face,If I had never knownThy pride as of a queen,Yet would another’s graceHave led me to her throne.
I should have loved as wellNot loving thee,My faith had been as strongWrought by another spell;Her love had grown to beAs thine for fire and song.
Yet is our love a thingAlone, austere,A new and sacred birthThat we alone could bringThrough flames of faith and fearTo pass upon the earth.
As one who makes a rhymeOf his fierce thought,With momentary artMay challenge change and time,So is the love we wroughtNot greatest, but apart.
About this text
Love’s Personality 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, Love’s Personality, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/love-s-personality.html, id L23062.
Form and metre
Love’s Personality is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABCABC. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABCABC seenA · faceB · knownC · queenA · graceB · throneC
- 2 ABCABC wellA · theeB · strongC · spellA · beB · songC
- 3 ABCABC thingA · austereB · birthC · bringA · fearB · earthC
- 4 ABCABC rhymeA · thoughtB · artC · timeA · wroughtB · apartC
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If I had never seen | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thy sweet grave face, | 4 | ···· |
| If I had never known | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thy pride as of a queen, | 6 | ······ |
| Yet would another’s grace | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Have led me to her throne. | 6 | ······ |
| I should have loved as well | 6 | ······ |
| Not loving thee, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| My faith had been as strong | 6 | ······ |
| Wrought by another spell; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Her love had grown to be | 6 | ······ |
| As thine for fire and song. | 6 | ···/·· |
| Yet is our love a thing | 6 | ··/··· |
| Alone, austere, | 4 | ˘/˘/ |
| A new and sacred birth | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That we alone could bring | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Through flames of faith and fear | 6 | ······ |
| To pass upon the earth. | 6 | ······ |
| As one who makes a rhyme | 6 | ······ |
| Of his fierce thought, | 4 | ···· |
| With momentary art | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| May challenge change and time, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| So is the love we wrought | 6 | ······ |
| Not greatest, but apart. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
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.