Hira-Singh's Farewell to Burmah
On the wooden deck of the wooden Junk, silent, alone, we lie,With silver foam about the bow, and a silver moon in the sky:A glimmer of dimmer silver here, from the anklets round your feet,Our lips may close on each other's lips, but never our souls may meet.
For though in my arms you lie at rest, your name I have never heard,To carry a thought between us two, we have not a single word.And yet what matter we do not speak, when the ardent eyes have spoken,The way of love is a sweeter way, when the silence is unbroken.
As a wayward Fancy, tired at times, of the cultured Damask Rose,Drifts away to the tangled copse, where the wild Anemone grows;So the ordered and licit love ashore, is hardly fresh and freeAs this light love in the open wind and salt of the outer sea.
So sweet you are, with your tinted cheeks and your small caressive hands,What if I carried you home with me, where our Golden Temple stands?Yet, this were folly indeed; to bind, in fetters of permanence,A passing dream whose enchantment charms because of its trancience.
Life is ever a slave to Time; we have but an hour to rest,Her steam is up and her lighters leave, the vessel that takes me west;And never again we two shall meet, as we chance to meet to-night,On the Junk, whose painted eyes gaze forth, in desolate want of sight.
And what is love at its best, but this? Conceived by a passing glance,Nursed and reared in a transient mood, on a drifting Sea of Chance.For rudderless craft are all our loves, among the rocks and the shoals,Well we may know one another's speech, but never each other's souls.
Give here your lips and kiss me again, we have but a moment more,Before we set the sail to the mast, before we loosen the oar.Good-bye to you, and my thanks to you, for the rest you let me share,While this night drifted away to the Past, to join the Nights that Were.
Words in this poem
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
- cultured a.
- Under culture; cultivated.
- copse n.
- A wood of small growth; a thicket of brushwood. See Coppice. [Contr. from coppice.]
- 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,]
- rudderless a.
- Without a rudder.
- craft n.
- Strength; might; secret power. [AS. cr strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, fr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hira-Singh's Farewell to Burmah is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, Hira-Singh's Farewell to Burmah, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/hira-singh-s-farewell-to-burmah.html, id L22636.
Form and metre
Hira-Singh's Farewell to Burmah is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 7 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 AABB lieA · skyA · feetB · meetB
- 2 AABB heardA · wordA · spokenB · unbrokenB
- 3 AABB roseA · growsA · freeB · seaB
- 4 AA-- handsA · standsA · permanence · trancience
- 5 AABB restA · westA · nightB · sightB
- 6 AABB glanceA · chanceA · shoalsB · soulsB
- 7 AA-- moreA · oarA · share · were
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On the wooden deck of the wooden Junk, silent, alone, we lie, | 16 | ··/˘···/˘·/˘˘/·· |
| With silver foam about the bow, and a silver moon in the sky: | 16 | ·/˘·······/˘···· |
| A glimmer of dimmer silver here, from the anklets round your feet, | 16 | ·/˘·/˘/˘···/˘··· |
| Our lips may close on each other's lips, but never our souls may meet. | 16 | /·····/˘··//˘··· |
| For though in my arms you lie at rest, your name I have never heard, | 16 | ·············/˘· |
| To carry a thought between us two, we have not a single word. | 16 | ·/˘··········/˘· |
| And yet what matter we do not speak, when the ardent eyes have spoken, | 17 | ···/˘······/˘··/˘ |
| The way of love is a sweeter way, when the silence is unbroken. | 17 | ······/˘···/˘·˘/˘ |
| As a wayward Fancy, tired at times, of the cultured Damask Rose, | 16 | ··/˘/˘/····/˘/˘· |
| Drifts away to the tangled copse, where the wild Anemone grows; | 16 | ·˘/··/˘˘····/˘·· |
| So the ordered and licit love ashore, is hardly fresh and free | 16 | ··/˘·/˘·˘/·/˘··· |
| As this light love in the open wind and salt of the outer sea. | 16 | ······/˘·····/˘· |
| So sweet you are, with your tinted cheeks and your small caressive hands, | 16 | ······/˘········ |
| What if I carried you home with me, where our Golden Temple stands? | 16 | ···/˘·····//˘/˘· |
| Yet, this were folly indeed; to bind, in fetters of permanence, | 16 | ···/˘˘/···/˘·/˘˘ |
| A passing dream whose enchantment charms because of its trancience. | 15 | ·/˘··˘/˘······· |
| Life is ever a slave to Time; we have but an hour to rest, | 16 | ··/˘········/˘·· |
| Her steam is up and her lighters leave, the vessel that takes me west; | 16 | ······/˘··/˘···· |
| And never again we two shall meet, as we chance to meet to-night, | 16 | ·/˘˘/··········· |
| On the Junk, whose painted eyes gaze forth, in desolate want of sight. | 16 | ····/˘····/˘···· |
| And what is love at its best, but this? Conceived by a passing glance, | 16 | ·········˘/··/˘· |
| Nursed and reared in a transient mood, on a drifting Sea of Chance. | 16 | ·˘····/˘···/˘··· |
| For rudderless craft are all our loves, among the rocks and the shoals, | 16 | ·/˘˘···/········ |
| Well we may know one another's speech, but never each other's souls. | 16 | ·····˘/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| Give here your lips and kiss me again, we have but a moment more, | 16 | ·······˘/····/˘· |
| Before we set the sail to the mast, before we loosen the oar. | 16 | ············/˘·· |
| Good-bye to you, and my thanks to you, for the rest you let me share, | 16 | ················ |
| While this night drifted away to the Past, to join the Nights that Were. | 16 | ···/˘˘/········· |
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.