Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs
Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighsBe echoed swiftly through that ivory shell,Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart; so wellWould passion arm me for the enterprize:But ah! I am no knight whose foeman dies;No cuirass glistens on my bosom's swell;I am no happy shepherd of the dellWhose lips have trembled with a maiden's eyes;Yet must I dote upon thee,--call thee sweet.Sweeter by far than Hybla's honied rosesWhen steep'd in dew rich to intoxication.Ah! I will taste that dew, for me 'tis meet,And when the moon her pallid face discloses,I'll gather some by spells, and incantation.
Words in this poem
- foeman n.
- An enemy in war. [AS. fhman.]
- dell n.
- A small, retired valley; a ravine. [AS. del, akin to E. dale; cf. D. delle, del, low ground. See Dale.]
- dote n.
- A marriage portion. See 1st Dot, n. Wyatt. [See Dot dowry.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems 1817, Project Gutenberg ebook #8209; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Keats, Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs, in Poems (1817) (1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8209, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/keats-1817/had-i-a-man-s-fair-form-then-might-my-sighs.html, id L20516.
Form and metre
Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE sighsA · shellB · wellB · enterprizeA · diesA · swellB · dellB · eyesA · sweetC · rosesD · intoxicationE · meetC · disclosesD · incantationE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs | 10 | ·········· |
| Be echoed swiftly through that ivory shell, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Thine ear, and find thy gentle heart; so well | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Would passion arm me for the enterprize: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But ah! I am no knight whose foeman dies; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| No cuirass glistens on my bosom's swell; | 10 | ·˘//˘··/˘· |
| I am no happy shepherd of the dell | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Whose lips have trembled with a maiden's eyes; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Yet must I dote upon thee,--call thee sweet. | 10 | ·········· |
| Sweeter by far than Hybla's honied roses | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| When steep'd in dew rich to intoxication. | 11 | ······˘·˘/˘ |
| Ah! I will taste that dew, for me 'tis meet, | 10 | ·········· |
| And when the moon her pallid face discloses, | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| I'll gather some by spells, and incantation. | 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.