I Would We Had Not Met Again
I would we had not met again!I had a dream of thee,Lovely, though sad, on desert-plain--Mournful on midnight sea.
What though it haunted me by night,And troubled through the day?It touch’d all earth with spirit-light,It glorified my way!
Oh! what shall now my faith restoreIn holy things and fair?We met--I saw thy soul once more--The world’s breath had been there!
Yes! it was sad on desert-plain,Mournful on midnight sea;Yet would I buy with life againThat one deep dream of thee!
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Would We Had Not Met Again 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, I Would We Had Not Met Again, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/i-would-we-had-not-met-again.html, id L19703.
Form and metre
I Would We Had Not Met Again is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in common 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 ABAB againA · theeB · plainA · seaB
- 2 ABAB nightA · dayB · lightA · wayB
- 3 ABAB restoreA · fairB · moreA · thereB
- 4 ABAB plainA · seaB · againA · theeB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I would we had not met again! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I had a dream of thee, | 6 | ······ |
| Lovely, though sad, on desert-plain-- | 8 | /˘···˘/· |
| Mournful on midnight sea. | 6 | /˘·/·· |
| What though it haunted me by night, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And troubled through the day? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| It touch’d all earth with spirit-light, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| It glorified my way! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Oh! what shall now my faith restore | 8 | ······˘/ |
| In holy things and fair? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We met--I saw thy soul once more-- | 8 | ········ |
| The world’s breath had been there! | 6 | ······ |
| Yes! it was sad on desert-plain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Mournful on midnight sea; | 6 | /˘·/·· |
| Yet would I buy with life again | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That one deep dream of thee! | 6 | ······ |
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.