To the Lovers That Come After Us
Lovers, a little of this your happy timeGive to the thought of us who were as you,That we, whose dearest passion in your primeIs but a winter garment, may renewOur love in yours, our flesh in your desire,Our tenderness in your discovering kiss,For we are half the fuel of your fire,As ours was fed by Marc and Beatrice.Remember us, and, when you too are dead,Our prayer with yours shall fall upon love’s springThat all our ghostly loves be comfortedIn those yet later lover’s love-making;So shall oblivion bring his dust to spillOn brain and limbs, and we be lovers still.
Words in this poem
- marc n.
- The refuse matter which remains after the pressure of fruit, particularly of grapes. [F.]
- 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,]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- spill n.
- A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [sq. root170. Cf. Spell a splinter.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Lovers That Come After Us 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, To the Lovers That Come After Us, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/to-the-lovers-that-come-after-us.html, id L23070.
Form and metre
To the Lovers That Come After Us is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other English sonnets, other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG timeA · youB · primeA · renewB · desireC · kissD · fireC · beatriceD · deadE · springF · comfortedE · makingF · spillG · stillG
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lovers, a little of this your happy time | 11 | /˘·/˘···/˘· |
| Give to the thought of us who were as you, | 10 | ·········· |
| That we, whose dearest passion in your prime | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Is but a winter garment, may renew | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Our love in yours, our flesh in your desire, | 12 | /···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Our tenderness in your discovering kiss, | 11 | //˘˘··˘/˘˘· |
| For we are half the fuel of your fire, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| As ours was fed by Marc and Beatrice. | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘˘ |
| Remember us, and, when you too are dead, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Our prayer with yours shall fall upon love’s spring | 11 | /˘········· |
| That all our ghostly loves be comforted | 11 | ··/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| In those yet later lover’s love-making; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/˘ |
| So shall oblivion bring his dust to spill | 11 | ··˘/˘˘····· |
| On brain and limbs, and we be lovers still. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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.