Two Lovers
Two lovers by a moss-grown spring:They leaned soft cheeks together there,Mingled the dark and sunny hair,And heard the wooing thrushes sing.O budding time!O love's blest prime!
Two wedded from the portal stept:The bells made happy carollings,The air was soft as fanning wings,White petals on the pathway slept.O pure-eyed bride!O tender pride!
Two faces o'er a cradle bent:Two hands above the head were locked:These pressed each other while they rocked,Those watched a life that love had sent.O solemn hour!O hidden power!
Two parents by the evening fire:The red light fell about their kneesOn heads that rose by slow degreesLike buds upon the lily spire.O patient life!O tender strife!
The two still sat together there,The red light shone about their knees;But all the heads by slow degreesHad gone and left that lonely pair.O voyage fast!O vanished past!
The red light shone upon the floorAnd made the space between them wide;They drew their chairs up side by side,Their pale cheeks joined, and said, "Once more!"O memories!O past that is!
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Two Lovers is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems (ten poems from The poems of George Eliot, Crowell, 1884, on Wikisource; four from The Spanish Gypsy; The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems, Old and New, Worthington, 1890, Internet Archive spanishgypsylege00elio), Wikisource and Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Eliot, Two Lovers, in The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems (1874), text of Wikisource and Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/eliot-poems/two-lovers.html, id L29778.
Form and metre
Two Lovers is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBACC, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABBACC steptA · carollingsB · wingsB · sleptA · brideC · prideC
- 3 ABBACC bentA · lockedB · rockedB · sentA · hourC · powerC
- 4 ABBACC fireA · kneesB · degreesB · spireA · lifeC · strifeC
- 5 ABBACC thereA · kneesB · degreesB · pairA · fastC · pastC
- 6 ABBACC floorA · wideB · sideB · moreA · memoriesC · isC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two lovers by a moss-grown spring: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They leaned soft cheeks together there, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Mingled the dark and sunny hair, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| And heard the wooing thrushes sing. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| O budding time! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| O love's blest prime! | 4 | ···· |
| Two wedded from the portal stept: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The bells made happy carollings, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The air was soft as fanning wings, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| White petals on the pathway slept. | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| O pure-eyed bride! | 4 | ···· |
| O tender pride! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Two faces o'er a cradle bent: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Two hands above the head were locked: | 8 | ········ |
| These pressed each other while they rocked, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Those watched a life that love had sent. | 8 | ········ |
| O solemn hour! | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| O hidden power! | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Two parents by the evening fire: | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| The red light fell about their knees | 8 | ········ |
| On heads that rose by slow degrees | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Like buds upon the lily spire. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O patient life! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| O tender strife! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The two still sat together there, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The red light shone about their knees; | 8 | ········ |
| But all the heads by slow degrees | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Had gone and left that lonely pair. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O voyage fast! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| O vanished past! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The red light shone upon the floor | 8 | ········ |
| And made the space between them wide; | 8 | ········ |
| They drew their chairs up side by side, | 8 | ········ |
| Their pale cheeks joined, and said, "Once more!" | 8 | ········ |
| O memories! | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| O past that is! | 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.