Memory
How I loved you in your sleep,With the starlight on your hair!
The touch of your lips was sweet,Aziza whom I adore,I lay at your slender feet,And against their soft palms pressed,I fitted my face to rest.As winds blow over the seaFrom Citron gardens ashore,Came, through your scented hair,The breeze of the night to me.
My lips grew arid and dry,My nerves were tense,Though your beauty soothe the eyeIt maddens the sense.Every curve of that beauty is known to me,Every tint of that delicate roseleaf skin,And these are printed on every atom of me,Burnt in on every fibre until I die.And for this, my sin,I doubt if ever, though dust I be,The dust will lose the desire,The torment and hidden fire,Of my passionate love for you.Aziza whom I adore,My dust will be full of your beauty, as is the blueAnd infinite ocean full of the azure sky.
In the light that waxed and wanedPlaying about your slumber in silver bars,As the palm trees swung their feathery fronds athwart the stars,How quiet and young you were,Pale as the Champa flowers, violet veined,That, sweet and fading, lay in your loosened hair.
How sweet you were in your sleep,With the starlight on your hair!Your throat thrown backwards, bare,And touched with circling moonbeams, silver whiteOn the couch's sombre shade.O Aziza my one delight,When Youth's passionate pulses fade,And his golden heart beats slow,When across the infinite skyI see the roseate glowOf my last, last sunset flare,I shall send my thoughts to this nightAnd remember you as I die,The one thing, among all the things of this earth, found fair.
How sweet you were in your sleep,With the starlight, silver and sable, across your hair!
Words in this poem
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- fibre n.
- One of the delicate, threadlike portions of which the tissues of plants and animals are in part constituted; as, the fiber of flax or of muscle. [F. fibre, L. fibra.]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- roseate a.
- Full of roses; rosy; as, roseate bowers. [Cf. L. roseus, rosatus, prepared from roses. See Roseal, Rose.]
- flare v. i.
- To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
- 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,]
- sable n.
- A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sóbole.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Memory 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, Memory, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/memory.html, id L22595.
Form and metre
Memory is 49 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
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.
- 2 ABACCDB-D sweetA · adoreB · feetA · pressedC · restC · seaD · ashoreB · hair · meD
- 3 ABABCDCADCEEF-FA dryA · tenseB · eyeA · senseB · meC · skinD · meC · dieA · sinD · beC · desireE · fireE · youF · adore · blueF · skyA
- 4 ABB-A- wanedA · barsB · starsB · were · veinedA · hair
- 5 -AABCBCDEDABEA sleep · hairA · bareA · whiteB · shadeC · delightB · fadeC · slowD · skyE · glowD · flareA · nightB · dieE · fairA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How I loved you in your sleep, | 8 | ···˘···· |
| With the starlight on your hair! | 7 | ··/···· |
| The touch of your lips was sweet, | 7 | ······· |
| Aziza whom I adore, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| I lay at your slender feet, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And against their soft palms pressed, | 8 | ·······˘ |
| I fitted my face to rest. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| As winds blow over the sea | 7 | ······· |
| From Citron gardens ashore, | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘/ |
| Came, through your scented hair, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The breeze of the night to me. | 7 | ······· |
| My lips grew arid and dry, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| My nerves were tense, | 4 | ···· |
| Though your beauty soothe the eye | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| It maddens the sense. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Every curve of that beauty is known to me, | 11 | /˘···/˘···· |
| Every tint of that delicate roseleaf skin, | 11 | /˘···/˘···· |
| And these are printed on every atom of me, | 12 | ···/˘·/˘/˘·· |
| Burnt in on every fibre until I die. | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| And for this, my sin, | 5 | ····· |
| I doubt if ever, though dust I be, | 8 | ···/···· |
| The dust will lose the desire, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| The torment and hidden fire, | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Of my passionate love for you. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Aziza whom I adore, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| My dust will be full of your beauty, as is the blue | 13 | ·······/˘···· |
| And infinite ocean full of the azure sky. | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| In the light that waxed and waned | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| Playing about your slumber in silver bars, | 11 | /˘···/˘·/˘· |
| As the palm trees swung their feathery fronds athwart the stars, | 13 | ······/˘·˘/·· |
| How quiet and young you were, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Pale as the Champa flowers, violet veined, | 9 | ···/˘//˘· |
| That, sweet and fading, lay in your loosened hair. | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| How sweet you were in your sleep, | 7 | ······· |
| With the starlight on your hair! | 7 | ··/···· |
| Your throat thrown backwards, bare, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And touched with circling moonbeams, silver white | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| On the couch's sombre shade. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| O Aziza my one delight, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| When Youth's passionate pulses fade, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| And his golden heart beats slow, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| When across the infinite sky | 8 | ·˘/·/˘˘· |
| I see the roseate glow | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Of my last, last sunset flare, | 7 | ····/·· |
| I shall send my thoughts to this night | 8 | ········ |
| And remember you as I die, | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| The one thing, among all the things of this earth, found fair. | 13 | ············· |
| How sweet you were in your sleep, | 7 | ······· |
| With the starlight, silver and sable, across your hair! | 13 | ··/·/˘·/˘˘/·· |
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.