Lyrics of Love and Sorrow
Love is the light of the world, my dear,Heigho, but the world is gloomy;The light has failed and the lamp down hurled,Leaves only darkness to me.
Love is the light of the world, my dear,Ah me, but the world is dreary;The night is down, and my curtain furledBut I cannot sleep, though weary.
Love is the light of the world, my dear,Alas for a hopeless hoping,When the flame went out in the breeze that swirled,And a soul went blindly groping.
The light was on the golden sands,A glimmer on the sea;My soul spoke clearly to thy soul,Thy spirit answered me.
Since then the light that gilds the sands,And glimmers on the sea,But vainly struggles to reflectThe radiant soul of thee.
The sea speaks to me of youAll the day long;Still as I sit by its sideYou are its song.
The sea sings to me of youLoud on the reef;Always it moans as it sings,Voicing my grief.
My dear love died last night;Shall I clothe her in white?My passionate love is dead,Shall I robe her in red?But nay, she was all untrue,She shall not go drest in blue;Still my desolate love was brave,Unrobed let her go to her grave.
There are brilliant heights of sorrowThat only the few may know;And the lesser woes of the world, like waves,Break noiselessly, far below.I hold for my own possessing,A mount that is lone and still--The great high place of a hopeless grief,And I call it my "Heart-break Hill."And once on a winter's midnightI found its highest crown,And there in the gloom, my soul and I,Weeping, we sat us down.
But now when I seek that summitWe are two ghosts that go;Only two shades of a thing that died,Once in the long ago.So I sit me down in the silence,And say to my soul, "Be still,"So the world may not know we died that night,From weeping on "Heart-break Hill."
Words in this poem
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- 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,]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lyrics of Love and Sorrow 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, Lyrics of Love and Sorrow, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/lyrics-of-love-and-sorrow.html, id L00801.
Form and metre
Lyrics of Love and Sorrow is 56 lines in 10 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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.
- 2 -A-A dear · drearyA · furled · wearyA
- 3 -A-A dear · hopingA · swirled · gropingA
- 4 -A-A sands · seaA · soul · meA
- 5 -A-A sands · seaA · reflect · theeA
- 6 -A-A you · longA · side · songA
- 7 -A-A you · reefA · sings · griefA
- 8 AABBCCDD nightA · whiteA · deadB · redB · untrueC · blueC · braveD · graveD
- 9 -A-A-B-B-C-C sorrow · knowA · waves · belowA · possessing · stillB · grief · hillB · midnight · crownC · i · downC
- 10 -A-A-B-B summit · goA · died · agoA · silence · stillB · night · hillB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love is the light of the world, my dear, | 9 | ········· |
| Heigho, but the world is gloomy; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The light has failed and the lamp down hurled, | 9 | ········· |
| Leaves only darkness to me. | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Love is the light of the world, my dear, | 9 | ········· |
| Ah me, but the world is dreary; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The night is down, and my curtain furled | 9 | ······/˘· |
| But I cannot sleep, though weary. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Love is the light of the world, my dear, | 9 | ········· |
| Alas for a hopeless hoping, | 8 | ˘/··/˘/˘ |
| When the flame went out in the breeze that swirled, | 10 | ·········· |
| And a soul went blindly groping. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| The light was on the golden sands, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A glimmer on the sea; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My soul spoke clearly to thy soul, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy spirit answered me. | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘· |
| Since then the light that gilds the sands, | 8 | ········ |
| And glimmers on the sea, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But vainly struggles to reflect | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The radiant soul of thee. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| The sea speaks to me of you | 7 | ······· |
| All the day long; | 4 | ···· |
| Still as I sit by its side | 7 | ······· |
| You are its song. | 4 | ···· |
| The sea sings to me of you | 7 | ······· |
| Loud on the reef; | 4 | ···· |
| Always it moans as it sings, | 7 | /······ |
| Voicing my grief. | 4 | /˘·· |
| My dear love died last night; | 6 | ······ |
| Shall I clothe her in white? | 6 | ······ |
| My passionate love is dead, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Shall I robe her in red? | 6 | ······ |
| But nay, she was all untrue, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| She shall not go drest in blue; | 7 | ······· |
| Still my desolate love was brave, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Unrobed let her go to her grave. | 8 | ········ |
| There are brilliant heights of sorrow | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| That only the few may know; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And the lesser woes of the world, like waves, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Break noiselessly, far below. | 8 | ········ |
| I hold for my own possessing, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| A mount that is lone and still-- | 7 | ······· |
| The great high place of a hopeless grief, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And I call it my "Heart-break Hill." | 8 | ········ |
| And once on a winter's midnight | 8 | ····/˘/· |
| I found its highest crown, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And there in the gloom, my soul and I, | 9 | ········· |
| Weeping, we sat us down. | 6 | /˘···· |
| But now when I seek that summit | 8 | ······/˘ |
| We are two ghosts that go; | 6 | ······ |
| Only two shades of a thing that died, | 9 | /˘······· |
| Once in the long ago. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| So I sit me down in the silence, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And say to my soul, "Be still," | 7 | ······· |
| So the world may not know we died that night, | 10 | ·········· |
| From weeping on "Heart-break Hill." | 7 | ·/˘···· |
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.