No Rival Like the Past
As those who eat a Luscious Fruit, sunbaked,Full of sweet juice, with zest, until they findIt finished, and their appetite unslaked,And so return and eat the pared-off rind;--
We, who in Youth, set white and careless teethIn the Ripe Fruits of Pleasure while they last,Later, creep back to gnaw the cast-off sheath,And find there is no Rival like the Past.
Words in this poem
- luscious a.
- Sweet; delicious; very grateful to the taste; toothsome; excessively sweet or rich. [Prob. for lustious, fr. lusty, or perh. a corruption of luxurious. Cf. Lush, Lusty.]
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- unslaked a.
- Not slaked; unslacked; as, an unslaked thirst; unslaked lime.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
No Rival Like the Past 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, No Rival Like the Past, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/no-rival-like-the-past.html, id L22631.
Form and metre
No Rival Like the Past is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABAB sunbakedA · findB · unslakedA · rindB
- 2 ABAB teethA · lastB · sheathA · pastB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As those who eat a Luscious Fruit, sunbaked, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Full of sweet juice, with zest, until they find | 10 | ·········· |
| It finished, and their appetite unslaked, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And so return and eat the pared-off rind;-- | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| We, who in Youth, set white and careless teeth | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In the Ripe Fruits of Pleasure while they last, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Later, creep back to gnaw the cast-off sheath, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And find there is no Rival like the Past. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.