The Wedding
O marriage-bells, your clamor tellsTwo weddings in one breath.SHE marries whom her love compels:-- And I wed Goodman Death!My brain is blank, my tears are red;Listen, O God: -- "I will," he said: --And I would that I were dead.Come groomsman Grief and bridesmaid PainCome and stand with a ghastly twain.My Bridegroom Death is come o'er the meresTo wed a bride with bloody tears.Ring, ring, O bells, full merrily:Life-bells to her, death-bells to me:O Death, I am true wife to thee!
Words in this poem
- goodman n.
- A familiar appellation of civility, equivalent to [Good + man]
- groomsman n.
- A male attendant of a bridegroom at his wedding; -- the correlative of bridesmaid.
- bridesmaid n.
- A female friend who attends on a bride at her wedding.
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- bridegroom n.
- A man newly married, or just about to be married. [OE. bridegome, brudgume, AS. br (akin to OS. br, D. bruidegom, bruigom, OHG. pr, MHG. briutegome, G. bräutigam); AS. br bride + guma man, akin to Goth. guma, Ic]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wedding is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Sidney Lanier, Project Gutenberg ebook #579; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sidney Lanier, The Wedding, in Poems (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #579, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lanier-poems/the-wedding.html, id L07688.
Form and metre
The Wedding is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 ABABCCCDDEE-FF tellsA · breathB · compelsA · deathB · redC · saidC · deadC · painD · twainD · meresE · tearsE · merrily · meF · theeF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O marriage-bells, your clamor tells | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Two weddings in one breath. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| SHE marries whom her love compels: | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| -- And I wed Goodman Death! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| My brain is blank, my tears are red; | 8 | ········ |
| Listen, O God: -- "I will," he said: -- | 8 | /˘······ |
| And I would that I were dead. | 7 | ······· |
| Come groomsman Grief and bridesmaid Pain | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Come and stand with a ghastly twain. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My Bridegroom Death is come o'er the meres | 9 | ·/······· |
| To wed a bride with bloody tears. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ring, ring, O bells, full merrily: | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Life-bells to her, death-bells to me: | 8 | ········ |
| O Death, I am true wife to thee! | 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.