Lacrimas
God send me tears!Loose the fierce band that binds my tired brain,Give me the melting heart of other years,And let me weep again!
Before me passThe shapes of things inexorably true.Gone is the sparkle of transforming dewFrom every blade of grass.
In life's high noonAimless I stand, my promised task undone,And raise my hot eyes to the angry sunThat will go down too soon.
Turned into gallAre the sweet joys of childhood's sunny reign;And memory is a torture, love a chainThat binds my life in thrall.
And childhood's painCould to me now the purest rapture yield;I pray for tears as in his parching fieldThe husbandman for rain.
We pray in vain!The sullen sky flings down its blaze of brass;The joys of life all scorched and withering pass;I shall not weep again.
Words in this poem
- inexorably adv.
- In an inexorable manner; inflexibly.
- aimless a.
- Without aim or purpose; as, an aimless life.
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- parching a.
- Scorching; burning; drying.
- husbandman n.
- The master of a family.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- withering a.
- Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lacrimas is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Hay, Lacrimas, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/lacrimas.html, id L21631.
Form and metre
Lacrimas is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 tearsA · brainB · yearsA · againB
- 2 ABBA passA · trueB · dewB · grassA
- 3 ABBA noonA · undoneB · sunB · soonA
- 4 ABBA gallA · reignB · chainB · thrallA
- 5 ABBA painA · yieldB · fieldB · rainA
- 6 ABBA vainA · brassB · passB · againA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| God send me tears! | 4 | ···· |
| Loose the fierce band that binds my tired brain, | 9 | ·······/· |
| Give me the melting heart of other years, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And let me weep again! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Before me pass | 4 | ···· |
| The shapes of things inexorably true. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Gone is the sparkle of transforming dew | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| From every blade of grass. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| In life's high noon | 4 | ···· |
| Aimless I stand, my promised task undone, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| And raise my hot eyes to the angry sun | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That will go down too soon. | 6 | ······ |
| Turned into gall | 4 | ···· |
| Are the sweet joys of childhood's sunny reign; | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| And memory is a torture, love a chain | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That binds my life in thrall. | 6 | ······ |
| And childhood's pain | 4 | ·/·· |
| Could to me now the purest rapture yield; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| I pray for tears as in his parching field | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The husbandman for rain. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| We pray in vain! | 4 | ···· |
| The sullen sky flings down its blaze of brass; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The joys of life all scorched and withering pass; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I shall not weep again. | 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.