Remorse
Sad is the thought of sunniest daysOf love and rapture perished,And shine through memory's tearful hazeThe eyes once fondliest cherished.Reproachful is the ghost of toysThat charmed while life was wasted.But saddest is the thought of joysThat never yet were tasted.
Sad is the vague and tender dreamOf dead love's lingering kisses,To crushed hearts haloed by the gleamOf unreturning blisses;Deep mourns the soul in anguished prideFor the pitiless death that won them,--But the saddest wail is for lips that diedWith the virgin dew upon them.
Words in this poem
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- 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.]
- haloed a.
- Surrounded with a halo; invested with an ideal glory; glorified.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Remorse 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, Remorse, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/remorse.html, id L21616.
Form and metre
Remorse is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABABCDCD daysA · perishedB · hazeA · cherishedB · toysC · wastedD · joysC · tastedD
- 2 ABABCDCD dreamA · kissesB · gleamA · blissesB · prideC · themD · diedC · themD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sad is the thought of sunniest days | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of love and rapture perished, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And shine through memory's tearful haze | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The eyes once fondliest cherished. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Reproachful is the ghost of toys | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| That charmed while life was wasted. | 8 | ··˘···/˘ |
| But saddest is the thought of joys | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That never yet were tasted. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Sad is the vague and tender dream | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of dead love's lingering kisses, | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| To crushed hearts haloed by the gleam | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of unreturning blisses; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Deep mourns the soul in anguished pride | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For the pitiless death that won them,-- | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| But the saddest wail is for lips that died | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| With the virgin dew upon them. | 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.