Contradictions
Now, even, I cannot think it true,My friend, that there is no more you.Almost as soon were no more I,Which were, of course, absurdity!Your place is bare, you are not seen,Your grave, I’m told, is growing green;And both for you and me, you know,There’s no Above and no Below.That you are dead must be inferred,And yet my thought rejects the word.
About this text
Contradictions is in the public domain. This text is taken from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #56974; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Levy, Contradictions, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/contradictions.html, id L21546.
Form and metre
Contradictions is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA--BBCCDD trueA · youA · i · absurdity · seenB · greenB · knowC · belowC · inferredD · wordD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now, even, I cannot think it true, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| My friend, that there is no more you. | 8 | ········ |
| Almost as soon were no more I, | 8 | /······· |
| Which were, of course, absurdity! | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Your place is bare, you are not seen, | 8 | ········ |
| Your grave, I’m told, is growing green; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And both for you and me, you know, | 8 | ········ |
| There’s no Above and no Below. | 8 | ········ |
| That you are dead must be inferred, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And yet my thought rejects the word. | 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.