Once, and once only, have I seen thy face
Once, and once only, have I seen thy face,Elia! once only has thy tripping tongueRun o'er my breast, yet never has been leftImpression on it stronger or more sweet.Cordial old man! what youth was in thy years,What wisdom in thy levity, what truthIn every utterance of that purest soul!Few are the spirits of the glorifiedI'd spring to earlier at the gate of Heaven.
About this text
Once, and once only, have I seen thy face 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, Once, and once only, have I seen thy face, in Imaginary Conversations and Poems (1795–1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21628, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/landor-poems/once-and-once-only-have-i-seen-thy-face.html, id L12199.
Form and metre
Once, and once only, have I seen thy face is 9 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once, and once only, have I seen thy face, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Elia! once only has thy tripping tongue | 11 | ˘/˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Run o'er my breast, yet never has been left | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Impression on it stronger or more sweet. | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Cordial old man! what youth was in thy years, | 10 | /˘········ |
| What wisdom in thy levity, what truth | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| In every utterance of that purest soul! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Few are the spirits of the glorified | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I'd spring to earlier at the gate of Heaven. | 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.