Longing
If you could sit with me beside the sea to-day,And whisper with me sweetest dreamings o'er and o'er;I think I should not find the clouds so dim and gray,And not so loud the waves complaining at the shore.
If you could sit with me upon the shore to-day,And hold my hand in yours as in the days of old,I think I should not mind the chill baptismal spray,Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold.
If you could walk with me upon the strand to-day,And tell me that my longing love had won your own,I think all my sad thoughts would then be put away,And I could give back laughter for the Ocean's moan!
About this text
Longing 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, Longing, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/longing.html, id L00506.
Form and metre
Longing is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.0 syllables.
See other poems in alexandrines.
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 A-A- dayA · o'er · grayA · shore
- 2 ABAB dayA · oldB · sprayA · coldB
- 3 ABAB dayA · ownB · awayA · moanB
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If you could sit with me beside the sea to-day, | 12 | ······˘/···· |
| And whisper with me sweetest dreamings o'er and o'er; | 12 | ·/˘··/˘/˘··· |
| I think I should not find the clouds so dim and gray, | 12 | ············ |
| And not so loud the waves complaining at the shore. | 12 | ······˘/˘··· |
| If you could sit with me upon the shore to-day, | 12 | ············ |
| And hold my hand in yours as in the days of old, | 12 | ············ |
| I think I should not mind the chill baptismal spray, | 12 | ········˘/˘· |
| Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold. | 12 | ············ |
| If you could walk with me upon the strand to-day, | 12 | ············ |
| And tell me that my longing love had won your own, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| I think all my sad thoughts would then be put away, | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| And I could give back laughter for the Ocean's moan! | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
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.