The Nature of Love
To noble heart Love doth for shelter fly,As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade;Love was not felt till noble heart beat high,Nor before love the noble heart was made.Soon as the sun's broad flameWas formed, so soon the clear light filled the air;Yet was not till he came:So love springs up in noble breasts, and thereHas its appointed space,As heat in the bright flames finds its allotted place.Kindles in noble heart the fire of love,As hidden virtue in the precious stone:This virtue comes not from the stars above,Till round it the ennobling sun has shone;But when his powerful blazeHas drawn forth what was vile, the stars impartStrange virtue in their rays;And thus when Nature doth create the heartNoble and pure and high,Like virtue from the star, love comes from woman's eye.
About this text
The Nature of Love 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, The Nature of Love, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-nature-of-love.html, id L26190.
Form and metre
The Nature of Love is 20 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEEFGFGHIHIAA. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCDCDEEFGFGHIHIAA flyA · shadeB · highA · madeB · flameC · airD · cameC · thereD · spaceE · placeE · loveF · stoneG · aboveF · shoneG · blazeH · impartI · raysH · heartI · highA · eyeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To noble heart Love doth for shelter fly, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Love was not felt till noble heart beat high, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nor before love the noble heart was made. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Soon as the sun's broad flame | 6 | ······ |
| Was formed, so soon the clear light filled the air; | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet was not till he came: | 6 | ······ |
| So love springs up in noble breasts, and there | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Has its appointed space, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| As heat in the bright flames finds its allotted place. | 12 | ········˘/˘· |
| Kindles in noble heart the fire of love, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/·· |
| As hidden virtue in the precious stone: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| This virtue comes not from the stars above, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Till round it the ennobling sun has shone; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| But when his powerful blaze | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars impart | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Strange virtue in their rays; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And thus when Nature doth create the heart | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Noble and pure and high, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Like virtue from the star, love comes from woman's eye. | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
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.