The Painter’s Last Work
“Clasp me a little longer on the brinkOf life, while I can feel thy dear caress;And when this heart hath ceased to beat, oh! think,And let it mitigate thy woe’s excess,That thou hast been to me all tenderness,And friend to more than human friendship just--Oh! by that retrospect of happiness,And by the hope of an immortal trust,God shall assuage thy pangs when I am laid in dust!”--Campbell.
The Scene is an English Cottage. The lattice opens upon aLandscape at sunset.
Words in this poem
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- retrospect v. i.
- To look backward; hence, to affect or concern what is past. [L. retrospicere; retro back + specere, spectum, to look. See Spy, and cf. Expect.]
- 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
The Painter’s Last Work 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, The Painter’s Last Work, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-painter-s-last-work.html, id L19735.
Form and metre
The Painter’s Last Work is 11 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 ABABBCBC- brinkA · caressB · thinkA · excessB · tendernessB · justC · happinessB · trustC · campbell
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “Clasp me a little longer on the brink | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Of life, while I can feel thy dear caress; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And when this heart hath ceased to beat, oh! think, | 10 | ·········· |
| And let it mitigate thy woe’s excess, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| That thou hast been to me all tenderness, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And friend to more than human friendship just-- | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Oh! by that retrospect of happiness, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And by the hope of an immortal trust, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| God shall assuage thy pangs when I am laid in dust!”--Campbell. | 14 | ··˘/········/˘ |
| The Scene is an English Cottage. The lattice opens upon a | 16 | ····/˘/˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Landscape at sunset. | 5 | /··/· |
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.