To Love
Why should I blush to own I love?'Tis Love that rules the realms above.Why should I blush to say to all,That Virtue holds my heart in thrall?
Why should I seek the thickest shade,Lest Love's dear secret be betray'd?Why the stern brow deceitful move,When I am languishing with love?
Is it weakness thus to dwellOn passion that I dare not tell?Such weakness I would ever prove;'Tis painful, though 'tis sweet to love.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White : With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas, Project Gutenberg ebook #7149; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Kirke White, To Love, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/to-love.html, id L10108.
Form and metre
To Love is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB loveA · aboveA · allB · thrallB
- 2 AABB shadeA · betray'dA · moveB · loveB
- 3 AABB dwellA · tellA · proveB · loveB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Why should I blush to own I love? | 8 | ········ |
| 'Tis Love that rules the realms above. | 8 | ········ |
| Why should I blush to say to all, | 8 | ········ |
| That Virtue holds my heart in thrall? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Why should I seek the thickest shade, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Lest Love's dear secret be betray'd? | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Why the stern brow deceitful move, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| When I am languishing with love? | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Is it weakness thus to dwell | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| On passion that I dare not tell? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Such weakness I would ever prove; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| 'Tis painful, though 'tis sweet to love. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.