Last Words
Dead! all’s done with!
These blossoms that I bring,This song that here I sing,These tears that now I shed,I give unto the dead.
There is no more to be done,Nothing beneath the sun,All the long ages through,Nothing--by me for you.
The tale is told to the end;This, ev’n, I may not know--If we were friend and friend,If we were foe and foe.
All’s done with utterly,All’s done with. Death to meWas ever Death indeed;To me no kindly creed
Consolatory was given.You were of earth, not Heaven....This dreary day, things seemVain shadows in a dream,
Or some strange, pictured show;And mine own tears that flow,My hidden tears that fall,The vainest of them all.
Words in this poem
- consolatory a.
- Of a consoling or comforting nature. [L. consolatorius.]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- pictured a.
- Furnished with pictures; represented by a picture or pictures; as, a pictured scene.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Last Words 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, Last Words, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/last-words.html, id L21542.
Form and metre
Last Words is 25 lines in 7 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 64% of the lines. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic trimeter.
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.
- 2 AABB bringA · singA · shedB · deadB
- 3 AABB doneA · sunA · throughB · youB
- 4 ABAB endA · knowB · friendA · foeB
- 5 --AA utterly · me · indeedA · creedA
- 6 --AA given · heaven · seemA · dreamA
- 7 AABB showA · flowA · fallB · allB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dead! all’s done with! | 4 | ···· |
| These blossoms that I bring, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| This song that here I sing, | 6 | ······ |
| These tears that now I shed, | 6 | ······ |
| I give unto the dead. | 6 | ······ |
| There is no more to be done, | 7 | ······· |
| Nothing beneath the sun, | 6 | /˘···· |
| All the long ages through, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Nothing--by me for you. | 6 | /˘···· |
| The tale is told to the end; | 7 | ······· |
| This, ev’n, I may not know-- | 6 | ······ |
| If we were friend and friend, | 6 | ······ |
| If we were foe and foe. | 6 | ······ |
| All’s done with utterly, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| All’s done with. Death to me | 6 | ······ |
| Was ever Death indeed; | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| To me no kindly creed | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Consolatory was given. | 7 | ˘/˘˘˘·/ |
| You were of earth, not Heaven.... | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| This dreary day, things seem | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Vain shadows in a dream, | 6 | ·/···· |
| Or some strange, pictured show; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And mine own tears that flow, | 6 | ······ |
| My hidden tears that fall, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The vainest of them all. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.