The Widower
For a season there must be pain--For a little, little spaceI shall lose the sight of her face,Take back the old life againWhile She is at rest in her place.
For a season this pain must endure--For a little, little whileI shall sigh more often than smile,Till Time shall work me a cure,And the pitiful days beguile.
For that season we must be apart,For a little length of years,Till my life's last hour nears,And, above the beat of my heart,I hear Her voice in my ears.
But I shall not understand--Being set on some later love,Shall not know her for whom I strove,Till she reach me forth her hand,Saying, 'Who but I have the right?'And out of a troubled nightShall draw me safe to the land.
Words in this poem
- 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
The Widower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, The Widower, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-widower.html, id L20387.
Form and metre
The Widower is 22 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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.
- 1 ABBAB painA · spaceB · faceB · againA · placeB
- 2 ABBAB endureA · whileB · smileB · cureA · beguileB
- 3 ABBAB apartA · yearsB · nearsB · heartA · earsB
- 4 A--ABBA understandA · love · strove · handA · rightB · nightB · landA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| For a season there must be pain-- | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| For a little, little space | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| I shall lose the sight of her face, | 8 | ········ |
| Take back the old life again | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| While She is at rest in her place. | 8 | ········ |
| For a season this pain must endure-- | 9 | ··/˘···˘/ |
| For a little, little while | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| I shall sigh more often than smile, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Till Time shall work me a cure, | 7 | ······· |
| And the pitiful days beguile. | 8 | ··/˘˘·˘/ |
| For that season we must be apart, | 9 | ··/˘···˘/ |
| For a little length of years, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Till my life's last hour nears, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And, above the beat of my heart, | 8 | ········ |
| I hear Her voice in my ears. | 7 | ······· |
| But I shall not understand-- | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Being set on some later love, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Shall not know her for whom I strove, | 8 | ········ |
| Till she reach me forth her hand, | 7 | ······· |
| Saying, 'Who but I have the right?' | 8 | /˘······ |
| And out of a troubled night | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Shall draw me safe to the land. | 7 | ······· |
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.