Lovers to Lovers
Our love forswornWas very love upon a day,Bitterness now, forlorn,This tattered love once went as proud a wayAs any born.
You well have keptYour love from all corrupting things,Your house of love is sweptAnd bright for use; whatso each season bringsYou may accept
In pride. But we?Our date of love is dead. Our blindBrief moment was to beThe sum, yet was it signed as yours, and signedIndelibly.
Words in this poem
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- whatso pron.
- Whatsoever; whosoever; whatever; anything that.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lovers to Lovers 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, Lovers to Lovers, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/lovers-to-lovers.html, id L23061.
Form and metre
Lovers to Lovers is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABA forswornA · dayB · forlornA · wayB · bornA
- 2 ABABA keptA · thingsB · sweptA · bringsB · acceptA
- 3 ABAB- weA · blindB · beA · signedB · indelibly
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Our love forsworn | 5 | /˘··/ |
| Was very love upon a day, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Bitterness now, forlorn, | 6 | /˘˘·˘/ |
| This tattered love once went as proud a way | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| As any born. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| You well have kept | 4 | ···· |
| Your love from all corrupting things, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Your house of love is swept | 6 | ······ |
| And bright for use; whatso each season brings | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| You may accept | 4 | ··˘/ |
| In pride. But we? | 4 | ···· |
| Our date of love is dead. Our blind | 8 | /·····/· |
| Brief moment was to be | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The sum, yet was it signed as yours, and signed | 10 | ·········· |
| Indelibly. | 4 | ˘/˘˘ |
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.