Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak
Proud word you never spoke, but you will speakFour not exempt from pride some future day.Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheekOver my open volume you will say,'This man loved me!' then rise and trip away.
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak 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, Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak, in Imaginary Conversations and Poems (1795–1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21628, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/landor-poems/proud-word-you-never-spoke-but-you-will-speak.html, id L12191.
Form and metre
Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak is 5 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABB. The lines average 9.6 syllables.
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 ABABB speakA · dayB · cheekA · sayB · awayB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Proud word you never spoke, but you will speak | 9 | ···/····· |
| Four not exempt from pride some future day. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Resting on one white hand a warm wet cheek | 10 | /˘········ |
| Over my open volume you will say, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| 'This man loved me!' then rise and trip away. | 10 | ········˘/ |
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.