Verse by Taj Mahomed
When first I loved, I gave my very soulUtterly unreserved to Love's control,But Love deceived me, wrenched my youth awayAnd made the gold of life for ever grey.Long I lived lonely, yet I tried in vainWith any other Joy to stifle pain;There is no other joy, I learned to know,And so returned to Love, as long ago.Yet I, this little while ere I go hence,Love very lightly now, in self-defence.
Words in this poem
- unreserved a.
- Not reserved; not kept back; not withheld in part; unrestrained.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Verse by Taj Mahomed 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, Verse by Taj Mahomed, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/verse-by-taj-mahomed.html, id L22632.
Form and metre
Verse by Taj Mahomed is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEE soulA · controlA · awayB · greyB · vainC · painC · knowD · agoD · henceE · defenceE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When first I loved, I gave my very soul | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Utterly unreserved to Love's control, | 10 | /˘˘·····˘/ |
| But Love deceived me, wrenched my youth away | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| And made the gold of life for ever grey. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Long I lived lonely, yet I tried in vain | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With any other Joy to stifle pain; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| There is no other joy, I learned to know, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And so returned to Love, as long ago. | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Yet I, this little while ere I go hence, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Love very lightly now, in self-defence. | 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.