The Lost Word
HIGH above a waveless sea,On the hills of long ago,There you lived awhile with me,And we loved—I know.
For your hair I made a crown,Twined it with these hands of mine,Sun-warmed leaves and tendrils brown,From the happy vine.
You were like some woodland thing,Fear and rapture in your eyes,Tender as a breath of SpringBlown from April skies.
Then I called you, and you heard,To your lover’s arms you came:Ah! what was that magic word,Your forgotten name!
Words in this poem
- waveless a.
- Free from waves; undisturbed; not agitated; as, the waveless sea.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lost Word is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, The Lost Word, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/the-lost-word.html, id L22702.
Form and metre
The Lost Word is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB seaA · agoB · meA · knowB
- 2 ABAB crownA · mineB · brownA · vineB
- 3 ABAB thingA · eyesB · springA · skiesB
- 4 ABAB heardA · cameB · wordA · nameB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| HIGH above a waveless sea, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| On the hills of long ago, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| There you lived awhile with me, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| And we loved—I know. | 5 | ····· |
| For your hair I made a crown, | 7 | ······· |
| Twined it with these hands of mine, | 7 | ······· |
| Sun-warmed leaves and tendrils brown, | 7 | ······· |
| From the happy vine. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| You were like some woodland thing, | 7 | ····/·· |
| Fear and rapture in your eyes, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Tender as a breath of Spring | 7 | /˘····· |
| Blown from April skies. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Then I called you, and you heard, | 7 | ······· |
| To your lover’s arms you came: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Ah! what was that magic word, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Your forgotten name! | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
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.