The Light of Love
Each shining light above usHas its own peculiar grace;But every light of heavenIs in my darling's face.
For it is like the sunlight,So strong and pure and warm,That folds all good and happy things,And guards from gloom and harm.
And it is like the moonlight,So holy and so calm;The rapt peace of a summer night,When soft winds die in balm.
And it is like the starlight;For, love her as I may,She dwells still lofty and sereneIn mystery far away.
Words in this poem
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Light of Love 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, The Light of Love, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/the-light-of-love.html, id L21602.
Form and metre
The Light of Love is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in short measure.
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 -A-A us · graceA · heaven · faceA
- 3 ABAB moonlightA · calmB · nightA · balmB
- 4 -A-A starlight · mayA · serene · awayA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Each shining light above us | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Has its own peculiar grace; | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| But every light of heaven | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| Is in my darling's face. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| For it is like the sunlight, | 7 | ·····/· |
| So strong and pure and warm, | 6 | ······ |
| That folds all good and happy things, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And guards from gloom and harm. | 6 | ······ |
| And it is like the moonlight, | 7 | ·····/· |
| So holy and so calm; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The rapt peace of a summer night, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When soft winds die in balm. | 6 | ······ |
| And it is like the starlight; | 7 | ·····/· |
| For, love her as I may, | 6 | ······ |
| She dwells still lofty and serene | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| In mystery far away. | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
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.