Love's Doubt
'Tis love that blinds my heart and eyes,--I sometimes say in doubting dreams,--The face that near me perfect seemsCold Memory paints in fainter dyes.
'Twas but love's dazzled eyes--I say--That made her seem so strangely bright;The face I worshipped yesternight,I dread to meet it changed to-day.
As, when dies out some song's refrain,And leaves your eyes in happy tears,Awake the same fond idle fears,--It cannot sound so sweet again.
You wait and say with vague annoy,"It will not sound so sweet again,"Until comes back the wild refrainThat floods your soul with treble joy.
So when I see my love againFades the unquiet doubt away,While shines her beauty like the dayOver my happy heart and brain.
And in that face I see no moreThe fancied faults I idly dreamed,But all the charms that fairest seemed,I find them, fairer than before.
Words in this poem
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- yesternight n.
- The last night; the night last past.
- unquiet v. t.
- To disquiet. Ld. Herbert. [1st pref. un- + quiet.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Doubt 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, Love's Doubt, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/love-s-doubt.html, id L21630.
Form and metre
Love's Doubt is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. 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 ABBA eyesA · dreamsB · seemsB · dyesA
- 2 ABBA sayA · brightB · yesternightB · dayA
- 3 ABBA refrainA · tearsB · fearsB · againA
- 4 ABBA annoyA · againB · refrainB · joyA
- 5 ABBA againA · awayB · dayB · brainA
- 6 ABBA moreA · dreamedB · seemedB · beforeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Tis love that blinds my heart and eyes,-- | 8 | ········ |
| I sometimes say in doubting dreams,-- | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The face that near me perfect seems | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| Cold Memory paints in fainter dyes. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| 'Twas but love's dazzled eyes--I say-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That made her seem so strangely bright; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The face I worshipped yesternight, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| I dread to meet it changed to-day. | 8 | ········ |
| As, when dies out some song's refrain, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And leaves your eyes in happy tears, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Awake the same fond idle fears,-- | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| It cannot sound so sweet again. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| You wait and say with vague annoy, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| "It will not sound so sweet again," | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Until comes back the wild refrain | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That floods your soul with treble joy. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| So when I see my love again | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Fades the unquiet doubt away, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| While shines her beauty like the day | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Over my happy heart and brain. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And in that face I see no more | 8 | ········ |
| The fancied faults I idly dreamed, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But all the charms that fairest seemed, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I find them, fairer than before. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.