I Love Thee
I love thee--I love thee!'Tis all that I can say;--It is my vision in the night,My dreaming in the day;The very echo of my heart,The blessing when I pray:I love thee--I love thee!Is all that I can say.
I love thee--I love thee!Is ever on my tongue;In all my proudest poesyThat chorus still is sung;It is the verdict of my eyes,Amidst the gay and young:I love thee--I love thee!A thousand maids among.
I love thee--I love thee!Thy bright hazel glance,The mellow lute upon those lips,Whose tender tones entrance;But most, dear heart of hearts, thy proofsThat still these words enhance,I love thee--I love thee!Whatever be thy chance.
Words in this poem
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
- 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]
- enhance v. t.
- To raise or lift up; to exalt. Wyclif. [Norm. F. enhauncer, enhaucer, OF. enhaleier, enhaucier; pref. en- (L. in) + haucier to lift, raise up, from an assumed L. altiare, fr. L. altus high; cf. Pr. en]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Love Thee is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, I Love Thee, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/i-love-thee.html, id L20067.
Form and metre
I Love Thee is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AB-B-BAB theeA · sayB · night · dayB · heart · prayB · theeA · sayB
- 2 AB-B-BAB theeA · tongueB · poesy · sungB · eyes · youngB · theeA · amongB
- 3 AB-B-BAB theeA · glanceB · lips · entranceB · proofs · enhanceB · theeA · chanceB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I love thee--I love thee! | 6 | ······ |
| 'Tis all that I can say;-- | 6 | ······ |
| It is my vision in the night, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My dreaming in the day; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The very echo of my heart, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The blessing when I pray: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I love thee--I love thee! | 6 | ······ |
| Is all that I can say. | 6 | ······ |
| I love thee--I love thee! | 6 | ······ |
| Is ever on my tongue; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In all my proudest poesy | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| That chorus still is sung; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| It is the verdict of my eyes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Amidst the gay and young: | 6 | ˘/···· |
| I love thee--I love thee! | 6 | ······ |
| A thousand maids among. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I love thee--I love thee! | 6 | ······ |
| Thy bright hazel glance, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| The mellow lute upon those lips, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Whose tender tones entrance; | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| But most, dear heart of hearts, thy proofs | 8 | ········ |
| That still these words enhance, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I love thee--I love thee! | 6 | ······ |
| Whatever be thy chance. | 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.