For Joan
I shall love no other child,Joan, as I love you;The second life our children buildRemains for you to do.
You would have been out-loved in oneThat never will be born,And the love that should my flower have grownGrows nothing but my thorn.
You for that unborn other’s sakeMy deepest heart do clutch,But sometimes--sometimes all you takeHurts, for her sake, too much.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For Joan is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, For Joan, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/for-joan.html, id L21972.
Form and metre
For Joan is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 child · youA · build · doA
- 2 -A-A one · bornA · grown · thornA
- 3 ABAB sakeA · clutchB · takeA · muchB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I shall love no other child, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Joan, as I love you; | 5 | ····· |
| The second life our children build | 8 | ·/˘·//˘· |
| Remains for you to do. | 6 | ˘/···· |
| You would have been out-loved in one | 8 | ········ |
| That never will be born, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And the love that should my flower have grown | 9 | ······/·· |
| Grows nothing but my thorn. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| You for that unborn other’s sake | 8 | ···///˘· |
| My deepest heart do clutch, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But sometimes--sometimes all you take | 8 | ·˘/˘/··· |
| Hurts, for her sake, too much. | 6 | ······ |
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.