To Clementina Black
More blest than was of old Diogenes,I have not held my lantern up in vain.Not mine, at least, this evil--to complain:“There is none honest among all of these.”
Our hopes go down that sailed before the breeze;Our creeds upon the rock are rent in twain;Something it is, if at the last remainOne floating spar cast up by hungry seas.
The secret of our being, who can tell?To praise the gods and Fate is not my part;Evil I see, and pain; within my heartThere is no voice that whispers: “All is well.”
Yet fair are days in summer; and more fairThe growths of human goodness here and there.
Words in this poem
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Clementina Black 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, To Clementina Black, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/to-clementina-black.html, id L21520.
Form and metre
To Clementina Black is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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- diogenes · vainA · complainA · these
- 2 ABBA breezeA · twainB · remainB · seasA
- 3 ABBA tellA · partB · heartB · wellA
- 4 AA fairA · thereA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| More blest than was of old Diogenes, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| I have not held my lantern up in vain. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Not mine, at least, this evil--to complain: | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| “There is none honest among all of these.” | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Our hopes go down that sailed before the breeze; | 10 | /········· |
| Our creeds upon the rock are rent in twain; | 10 | /········· |
| Something it is, if at the last remain | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| One floating spar cast up by hungry seas. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The secret of our being, who can tell? | 10 | ·/˘·//˘··· |
| To praise the gods and Fate is not my part; | 10 | ·········· |
| Evil I see, and pain; within my heart | 10 | /˘········ |
| There is no voice that whispers: “All is well.” | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Yet fair are days in summer; and more fair | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The growths of human goodness here and there. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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.