O, Gather Me the Rose, the Rose
O, GATHER me the rose, the rose,While yet in flower we find it,For summer smiles, but summer goes,And winter waits behind it!
For with the dream foregone, foregone,The deed forborne for ever,The worm, regret, will canker on,And Time will turn him never.
So well it were to love, my love,And cheat of any laughterThe fate beneath us and above,The dark before and after.
The myrtle and the rose, the rose,The sunshine and the swallow,The dream that comes, the wish that goes,The memories that follow!
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O, Gather Me the Rose, the Rose is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, O, Gather Me the Rose, the Rose, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/o-gather-me-the-rose-the-rose.html, id L12386.
Form and metre
O, Gather Me the Rose, the Rose is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 roseA · itB · goesA · itB
- 2 ABAB foregoneA · everB · onA · neverB
- 3 ABAB loveA · laughterB · aboveA · afterB
- 4 ABAB roseA · swallowB · goesA · followB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O, GATHER me the rose, the rose, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| While yet in flower we find it, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For summer smiles, but summer goes, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And winter waits behind it! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| For with the dream foregone, foregone, | 8 | ····//// |
| The deed forborne for ever, | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| The worm, regret, will canker on, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And Time will turn him never. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| So well it were to love, my love, | 8 | ········ |
| And cheat of any laughter | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| The fate beneath us and above, | 8 | ········ |
| The dark before and after. | 7 | ······· |
| The myrtle and the rose, the rose, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The sunshine and the swallow, | 7 | ·/···/˘ |
| The dream that comes, the wish that goes, | 8 | ········ |
| The memories that follow! | 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.