Lese-Amour
How well my heart remembersBeside these camp-fire embersThe eyes that smiled so far away,--The joy that was November's.
Her voice to laughter moving,So merrily reproving,--We wandered through the autumn woods,And neither thought of loving.
The hills with light were glowing,The waves in joy were flowing,--It was not to the clouded sunThe day's delight was owing.
Though through the brown leaves straying,Our lives seemed gone a-Maying;We knew not Love was with us there,No look nor tone betraying.
How unbelief still missesThe best of being's blisses!Our parting saw the first and lastOf love's imagined kisses.
Now 'mid these scenes the drearestI dream of her, the dearest,--Whose eyes outshine the Southern stars,So far, and yet the nearest.
And Love, so gaily taunted,Who died, no welcome granted,Comes to me now, a pallid ghost,By whom my life is haunted.
With bonds I may not sever,He binds my heart for ever,And leads me where we murdered him,--The Hill beside the River.
February 1864.
Words in this poem
- unbelief n.
- The withholding of belief; doubt; incredulity; skepticism. [Pref. un- not + belief: cf. AS. ungeleáfa.]
- outshine v. i.
- To shine forth.
- gaily adv.
- Merrily; showily. See gaily. [From Gay.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lese-Amour 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, Lese-Amour, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/lese-amour.html, id L21619.
Form and metre
Lese-Amour is 33 lines in 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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.
- 1 AA-A remembersA · embersA · away · november'sA
- 2 AA-A movingA · reprovingA · woods · lovingA
- 3 AA-A glowingA · flowingA · sun · owingA
- 4 AA-A strayingA · mayingA · there · betrayingA
- 5 AA-A missesA · blissesA · last · kissesA
- 6 AA-A drearestA · dearestA · stars · nearestA
- 7 A--A tauntedA · granted · ghost · hauntedA
- 8 AA-- severA · everA · him · river
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How well my heart remembers | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Beside these camp-fire embers | 8 | ·/··/˘/˘ |
| The eyes that smiled so far away,-- | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The joy that was November's. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Her voice to laughter moving, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| So merrily reproving,-- | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| We wandered through the autumn woods, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And neither thought of loving. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The hills with light were glowing, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The waves in joy were flowing,-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| It was not to the clouded sun | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The day's delight was owing. | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| Though through the brown leaves straying, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Our lives seemed gone a-Maying; | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| We knew not Love was with us there, | 8 | ········ |
| No look nor tone betraying. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| How unbelief still misses | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The best of being's blisses! | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Our parting saw the first and last | 8 | //˘····· |
| Of love's imagined kisses. | 8 | ··˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Now 'mid these scenes the drearest | 7 | ······· |
| I dream of her, the dearest,-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Whose eyes outshine the Southern stars, | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| So far, and yet the nearest. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And Love, so gaily taunted, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Who died, no welcome granted, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Comes to me now, a pallid ghost, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| By whom my life is haunted. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With bonds I may not sever, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| He binds my heart for ever, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And leads me where we murdered him,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The Hill beside the River. | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| February 1864. | 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.