A Thought of the Rose
How much of memory dwells amidst thy bloom,Rose! ever wearing beauty for thy dower!The bridal-day--the festival--the tomb--Thou hast thy part in each, thou stateliest flower!
Therefore with thy soft breath come floating byA thousand images of love and grief,Dreams, fill’d with tokens of mortality,Deep thoughts of all things beautiful and brief.
Not such thy spells o’er those that hail’d thee first,In the clear light of Eden’s golden day!There thy rich leaves to crimson glory burst,Link’d with no dim remembrance of decay.Rose! for the banquet gather’d, and the bier;Rose! colour’d now by human hope and painSurely where death is not--nor change, nor fear,Yet may we meet thee, joy’s own flower again!
Words in this poem
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
- bier n.
- A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Thought of the Rose is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, A Thought of the Rose, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/a-thought-of-the-rose.html, id L19594.
Form and metre
A Thought of the Rose is 16 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 A-A- bloomA · dower · tombA · flower
- 2 -A-A by · griefA · mortality · briefA
- 3 ABABCDCD firstA · dayB · burstA · decayB · bierC · painD · fearC · againD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How much of memory dwells amidst thy bloom, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Rose! ever wearing beauty for thy dower! | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| The bridal-day--the festival--the tomb-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Thou hast thy part in each, thou stateliest flower! | 11 | ··········/ |
| Therefore with thy soft breath come floating by | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A thousand images of love and grief, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Dreams, fill’d with tokens of mortality, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Deep thoughts of all things beautiful and brief. | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Not such thy spells o’er those that hail’d thee first, | 10 | ·········· |
| In the clear light of Eden’s golden day! | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| There thy rich leaves to crimson glory burst, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Link’d with no dim remembrance of decay. | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Rose! for the banquet gather’d, and the bier; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Rose! colour’d now by human hope and pain | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Surely where death is not--nor change, nor fear, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Yet may we meet thee, joy’s own flower again! | 10 | ·······/˘/ |
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.