Ianthe! you are call'd to cross the sea
Ianthe! you are call'd to cross the sea!A path forbidden me!Remember, while the Sun his blessing shedsUpon the mountain-heads,How often we have watcht him laying downHis brow, and dropt our ownAgainst each other's, and how faint and shortAnd sliding the support!What will succeed it now? Mine is unblest,Ianthe! nor will restBut on the very thought that swells with pain.O bid me hope again!O give me back what Earth, what (without you)Not Heaven itself can do,One of the golden days that we have past;And let it be my last!Or else the gift would be, however sweet,Fragile and incomplete.
Words in this poem
- unblest a.
- Not blest; excluded from benediction; hence, accursed; wretched. [Pref. un- not + blessed, blest.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ianthe! you are call'd to cross the sea is in the public domain. This text is taken from Imaginary Conversations and Poems: A Selection, Project Gutenberg ebook #21628; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter Savage Landor, Ianthe! you are call'd to cross the sea, in Imaginary Conversations and Poems (1795–1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21628, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/landor-poems/ianthe-you-are-call-d-to-cross-the-sea.html, id L12187.
Form and metre
Ianthe! you are call'd to cross the sea is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 89% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB--CCDDEEFFGGHH seaA · meA · shedsB · headsB · down · own · shortC · supportC · unblestD · restD · painE · againE · youF · doF · pastG · lastG · sweetH · incompleteH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ianthe! you are call'd to cross the sea! | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| A path forbidden me! | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Remember, while the Sun his blessing sheds | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Upon the mountain-heads, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| How often we have watcht him laying down | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| His brow, and dropt our own | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Against each other's, and how faint and short | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And sliding the support! | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| What will succeed it now? Mine is unblest, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Ianthe! nor will rest | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| But on the very thought that swells with pain. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| O bid me hope again! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| O give me back what Earth, what (without you) | 10 | ·········· |
| Not Heaven itself can do, | 7 | ·/˘˘/·· |
| One of the golden days that we have past; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And let it be my last! | 6 | ······ |
| Or else the gift would be, however sweet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Fragile and incomplete. | 6 | /˘·˘˘/ |
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.