A Lyric
My lady love lives far away,And oh my heart is sad by day,And ah my tears fall fast by night,What may I do in such a plight.
Why, miles grow few when love is fleet,And love, you know, hath flying feet;Break off thy sighs and witness this,How poor a thing mere distance is.
My love knows not I love her so,And would she scorn me, did she know?How may the tale I would impartAttract her ear and storm her heart?
Calm thou the tempest in my breast,Who loves in silence loves the best,But bide thy time, she will awake,No night so dark but morn will break.
But though my heart so strongly yearn,My lady loves me not in turn,How may I win the blest replyThat my void heart shall satisfy.
Love breedeth love, be thou but true,And soon thy love shall love thee, too;If Fate hath meant you heart for heart,There's naught may keep you twain apart.
Words in this poem
- plight v. t.
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. [OE. pliten; probably through Old French, fr. LL. plectare, L. plectere. See Plait, Ply.]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- 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,]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Lyric is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Lyric, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-lyric.html, id L00901.
Form and metre
A Lyric is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB awayA · dayA · nightB · plightB
- 2 AA-- fleetA · feetA · this · is
- 3 AABB soA · knowA · impartB · heartB
- 4 AABB breastA · bestA · awakeB · breakB
- 5 AABB yearnA · turnA · replyB · satisfyB
- 6 AABB trueA · tooA · heartB · apartB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My lady love lives far away, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And oh my heart is sad by day, | 8 | ········ |
| And ah my tears fall fast by night, | 8 | ········ |
| What may I do in such a plight. | 8 | ········ |
| Why, miles grow few when love is fleet, | 8 | ········ |
| And love, you know, hath flying feet; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Break off thy sighs and witness this, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| How poor a thing mere distance is. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My love knows not I love her so, | 8 | ········ |
| And would she scorn me, did she know? | 8 | ········ |
| How may the tale I would impart | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Attract her ear and storm her heart? | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Calm thou the tempest in my breast, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who loves in silence loves the best, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But bide thy time, she will awake, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| No night so dark but morn will break. | 8 | ········ |
| But though my heart so strongly yearn, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My lady loves me not in turn, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| How may I win the blest reply | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That my void heart shall satisfy. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Love breedeth love, be thou but true, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And soon thy love shall love thee, too; | 8 | ········ |
| If Fate hath meant you heart for heart, | 8 | ········ |
| There's naught may keep you twain apart. | 8 | ······˘/ |
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.