Dissolute
MANY years have I still to burn, detainedLike a candle flame on this body; but I enshrineA darkness within me, a presence which sleepscontainedIn my flame of living, her soul enfolded in mine.
And through these years, while I burn on the fuel oflife,What matter the stuff I lick up in my living flame,Seeing I keep in the fire-core, inviolate,A night where she dreams my dreams for me, everthe same.
Words in this poem
- enshrine v. t.
- To inclose in a shrine or chest; hence, to preserve or cherish as something sacred; as, to enshrine something in memory.
- inviolate a.
- Not violated; uninjured; unhurt; unbroken. [L. inviolatus. See In- not, and Violate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dissolute is in the public domain. This text is taken from Amores: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22531; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: D. H. Lawrence, Dissolute, in Amores (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22531, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawrence-amores/dissolute.html, id L13582.
Form and metre
Dissolute is 11 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 55% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 AB-AB detainedA · enshrineB · sleeps · containedA · mineB
- 2 --A--A of · life · flameA · inviolate · ever · sameA
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| MANY years have I still to burn, detained | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Like a candle flame on this body; but I enshrine | 13 | ··/˘···/˘··˘/ |
| A darkness within me, a presence which sleeps | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| contained | 2 | ˘/ |
| In my flame of living, her soul enfolded in mine. | 13 | ····/˘··˘/˘·· |
| And through these years, while I burn on the fuel of | 11 | ·········/· |
| life, | 1 | · |
| What matter the stuff I lick up in my living flame, | 13 | ·/˘·······/˘· |
| Seeing I keep in the fire-core, inviolate, | 11 | /····/·˘/˘˘ |
| A night where she dreams my dreams for me, ever | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| the same. | 2 | ·· |
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.