Forsaken
Something the heart must have to cherish,Must love and joy and sorrow learn,Something with passion clasp or perish,And in itself to ashes burn.
So to this child my heart is clinging,And its frank eyes, with look intense,Me from a world of sin are bringingBack to a world of innocence.
Disdain must thou endure forever;Strong may thy heart in danger be!Thou shalt not fail! but ah, be neverFalse as thy father was to me.
Never will I forsake thee, faithless,And thou thy mother ne'er forsake,Until her lips are white and breathless,Until in death her eyes shall break.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Forsaken is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Forsaken, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/forsaken.html, id L18068.
Form and metre
Forsaken is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB cherishA · learnB · perishA · burnB
- 2 ABAB clingingA · intenseB · bringingA · innocenceB
- 3 ABAB foreverA · beB · neverA · meB
- 4 ABAB faithlessA · forsakeB · breathlessA · breakB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Something the heart must have to cherish, | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| Must love and joy and sorrow learn, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Something with passion clasp or perish, | 9 | /˘·/˘··/˘ |
| And in itself to ashes burn. | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| So to this child my heart is clinging, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And its frank eyes, with look intense, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Me from a world of sin are bringing | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Back to a world of innocence. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Disdain must thou endure forever; | 9 | ˘/··˘/˘/˘ |
| Strong may thy heart in danger be! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thou shalt not fail! but ah, be never | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| False as thy father was to me. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Never will I forsake thee, faithless, | 9 | /˘··˘/·/˘ |
| And thou thy mother ne'er forsake, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Until her lips are white and breathless, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Until in death her eyes shall break. | 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.