Request
Give me your self one hour; I do not craveFor any love, or even thought, of me.Come, as a Sultan may caress a slaveAnd then forget for ever, utterly.
Come! as west winds, that passing, cool and wet,O'er desert places, leave them fields in flowerAnd all my life, for I shall not forget,Will keep the fragrance of that perfect hour!
Words in this poem
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Request 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, Request, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/request.html, id L22582.
Form and metre
Request is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 A-A- craveA · me · slaveA · utterly
- 2 ABAB wetA · flowerB · forgetA · hourB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Give me your self one hour; I do not crave | 10 | ·····/···· |
| For any love, or even thought, of me. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Come, as a Sultan may caress a slave | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| And then forget for ever, utterly. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Come! as west winds, that passing, cool and wet, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| O'er desert places, leave them fields in flower | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| And all my life, for I shall not forget, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Will keep the fragrance of that perfect hour! | 11 | ···/˘··/·/˘ |
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.