Well I remember how you smiled
Well I remember how you smiledTo see me write your name uponThe soft sea-sand--'O! what a child!You think you're writing upon stone!'I have since written what no tideShall ever wash away, what menUnborn shall read o'er ocean wideAnd find Ianthe's name again.
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,]
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Well I remember how you smiled 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, Well I remember how you smiled, in Imaginary Conversations and Poems (1795–1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21628, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/landor-poems/well-i-remember-how-you-smiled.html, id L12206.
Form and metre
Well I remember how you smiled is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 62% 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 A-A-BCBC smiledA · upon · childA · stone · tideB · menC · wideB · againC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Well I remember how you smiled | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| To see me write your name upon | 8 | ········ |
| The soft sea-sand--'O! what a child! | 8 | ········ |
| You think you're writing upon stone!' | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I have since written what no tide | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Shall ever wash away, what men | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Unborn shall read o'er ocean wide | 8 | //···/˘· |
| And find Ianthe's name again. | 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.