The Bride
MY love looks like a girl to-night,But she is old.The plaits that lie along her pillowAre not gold,But threaded with filigree,And uncanny cold.
She looks like a young maiden, since her browIs smooth and fair,Her cheeks are very smooth, her eyes are closed,She sleeps a rareStill winsome sleep, so still, and so composed.
Nay, but she sleeps like a bride, and dreams herdreamsOf perfect things.She lies at last, the darling, in the shape of her dream,And her dead mouth singsBy its shape, like the thrushes in clear evenings.
Words in this poem
- uncanny a.
- Not canny; unsafe; strange; weird; ghostly.
- winsome a.
- Cheerful; merry; gay; light-hearted. [AS. wynsum, fr. wynn joy; akin to OS. wunnia, OHG. wunna, wunni, G. wonne, Goth. wunan to rejoice (in unwunands sad), AS. wunian to dwell. Win, v. t., Wont, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bride 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, The Bride, in Amores (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22531, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawrence-amores/the-bride.html, id L13568.
Form and metre
The Bride is 17 lines in 3 stanzas. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 35% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-A night · oldA · pillow · goldA · filigree · coldA
- 2 -ABAB brow · fairA · closedB · rareA · composedB
- 3 --A-AA her · dreams · thingsA · dream · singsA · eveningsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| MY love looks like a girl to-night, | 8 | ········ |
| But she is old. | 4 | ···· |
| The plaits that lie along her pillow | 9 | ····˘/·/˘ |
| Are not gold, | 3 | ··· |
| But threaded with filigree, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And uncanny cold. | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| She looks like a young maiden, since her brow | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Is smooth and fair, | 4 | ···· |
| Her cheeks are very smooth, her eyes are closed, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| She sleeps a rare | 4 | ···· |
| Still winsome sleep, so still, and so composed. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Nay, but she sleeps like a bride, and dreams her | 10 | ·········· |
| dreams | 1 | · |
| Of perfect things. | 4 | ·˘/· |
| She lies at last, the darling, in the shape of her dream, | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| And her dead mouth sings | 5 | ····· |
| By its shape, like the thrushes in clear evenings. | 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.