The Last Judgment
With beating heart and lagging feet,Lord, I approach the Judgment-seat.All bring hither the fruits of toil,Measures of wheat and measures of oil;
Gold and jewels and precious wine;No hands bare like these hands of mine.The treasure I have nor weighs nor gleams:Lord, I can bring you only dreams.
In days of spring, when my blood ran high,I lay in the grass and looked at the sky,And dreamed that my love lay by my side--My love was false, and then she died.
All the heat of the summer through,I dreamed she lived, that her heart was true.Throughout the hours of the day I slept,But woke in the night, at times, and wept.
The nights and days, they went and came,I lay in shadow and dreamed of fame;And heard men passing the lonely place,Who marked me not and my hidden face.
My strength waxed faint, my hair grew grey;Nothing but dreams by night and day.Some men sicken, with wine and food;I starved on dreams, and found them good.
This is the tale I have to tell--Show the fellow the way to hell.
Words in this poem
- lagging n.
- The clothing (esp., an outer, wooden covering), as of a steam cylinder, applied to prevent the radiation of heat; a covering of lags; -- called also deading and cleading.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sicken v. t.
- To make sick; to disease.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Last Judgment 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, The Last Judgment, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/the-last-judgment.html, id L21555.
Form and metre
The Last Judgment is 26 lines in 7 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See 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 AABB feetA · seatA · toilB · oilB
- 2 AABB wineA · mineA · gleamsB · dreamsB
- 3 AABB highA · skyA · sideB · diedB
- 4 AABB throughA · trueA · sleptB · weptB
- 5 AABB cameA · fameA · placeB · faceB
- 6 AA-- greyA · dayA · food · good
- 7 AA tellA · hellA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With beating heart and lagging feet, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Lord, I approach the Judgment-seat. | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| All bring hither the fruits of toil, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Measures of wheat and measures of oil; | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| Gold and jewels and precious wine; | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| No hands bare like these hands of mine. | 8 | ········ |
| The treasure I have nor weighs nor gleams: | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Lord, I can bring you only dreams. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In days of spring, when my blood ran high, | 9 | ········· |
| I lay in the grass and looked at the sky, | 10 | ·········· |
| And dreamed that my love lay by my side-- | 9 | ········· |
| My love was false, and then she died. | 8 | ········ |
| All the heat of the summer through, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I dreamed she lived, that her heart was true. | 9 | ········· |
| Throughout the hours of the day I slept, | 9 | ···/····· |
| But woke in the night, at times, and wept. | 9 | ········· |
| The nights and days, they went and came, | 8 | ········ |
| I lay in shadow and dreamed of fame; | 9 | ···/····· |
| And heard men passing the lonely place, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Who marked me not and my hidden face. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| My strength waxed faint, my hair grew grey; | 8 | ········ |
| Nothing but dreams by night and day. | 8 | /˘······ |
| Some men sicken, with wine and food; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I starved on dreams, and found them good. | 8 | ········ |
| This is the tale I have to tell-- | 8 | ········ |
| Show the fellow the way to hell. | 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.