New Love, New Life II

Amy Levy (1861–1889) · 1889

iambic trimeter · ABAB · 8 lines · from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse

’Tis true,--in other daysHave I unbarred the door;He knows the walks and ways--Love has been here before.

Love blest and love accurstWas here in days long past;This time is not the first,But this time is the last.

Words in this poem

accurst p. p.
Doomed to destruction or misery; cursed; hence, bad enough to be under the curse; execrable; detestable; exceedingly hateful; -- as, an accursed deed.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

New Love, New Life II 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, New Love, New Life II, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/new-love-new-life-ii.html, id L21533.

Form and metre

New Love, New Life II is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).

See 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.

  1. 1 ABAB daysA · doorB · waysA · beforeB
  2. 2 ABAB accurstA · pastB · firstA · lastB
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.

LineSyl.Stress
’Tis true,--in other days6···/˘·
Have I unbarred the door;6······
He knows the walks and ways--6······
Love has been here before.6······
Love blest and love accurst6······
Was here in days long past;6······
This time is not the first,6······
But this time is the last.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.

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