On a Friend’s Declaring Herself Unable to Recognise Him
Rightly thou speak’st--I am myself no more;And yet in worth not less than I have been.Seems this a dark, strange riddle? Yet,’tis none!The gentle moon that gladdens thee by night--Thine eye, thy spirit irresistiblyWinning with beams of love--mark! how it floatsThrough the day’s glare, a pale and powerless cloud!I am o’ercome by the full blaze of noon;Ye know me, and I know myself no more!
Words in this poem
- rightly adv.
- Straightly; directly; in front. [AS. richtlice.]
- irresistibly adv.
- In an irrestible manner.
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Friend’s Declaring Herself Unable to Recognise Him 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, On a Friend’s Declaring Herself Unable to Recognise Him, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/on-a-friend-s-declaring-herself-unable-to-recognise-him.html, id L19787.
Form and metre
On a Friend’s Declaring Herself Unable to Recognise Him is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 ABB-----A moreA · beenB · noneB · night · irresistibly · floats · cloud · noon · moreA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rightly thou speak’st--I am myself no more; | 10 | /˘·····/·· |
| And yet in worth not less than I have been. | 10 | ·········· |
| Seems this a dark, strange riddle? Yet,’tis none! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The gentle moon that gladdens thee by night-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thine eye, thy spirit irresistibly | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Winning with beams of love--mark! how it floats | 10 | /˘········ |
| Through the day’s glare, a pale and powerless cloud! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I am o’ercome by the full blaze of noon; | 10 | ·········· |
| Ye know me, and I know myself no more! | 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.