Dedication, to Volume of Poems Entitled, a Year's Life
The gentle Una I have loved,The snowy maiden, pure and mild,Since ever by her side I roved,Through ventures strange, a wondering child,In fantasy a Red Cross Knight,Burning for her dear sake to fight.
If there be one who can, like her,Make sunshine in life's shady places,One in whose holy bosom stirAs many gentle household graces--And such I think there needs must be--Will she accept this book from me?
Words in this poem
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- fantasy n.
- Fancy; imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a vagary of the imagination; whim; caprice; humor. [See Fancy.]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dedication, to Volume of Poems Entitled, a Year's Life is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of James Russell Lowell With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole, Project Gutenberg ebook #38520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Russell Lowell, Dedication, to Volume of Poems Entitled, a Year's Life, in Poems (1844–1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-james-russell-poems/dedication-to-volume-of-poems-entitled-a-year-s-life.html, id L13613.
Form and metre
Dedication, to Volume of Poems Entitled, a Year's Life is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% 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 -A-ABB loved · mildA · roved · childA · knightB · fightB
- 2 ABABCC herA · placesB · stirA · gracesB · beC · meC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The gentle Una I have loved, | 9 | ·/˘/˘···˘ |
| The snowy maiden, pure and mild, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Since ever by her side I roved, | 9 | ·/˘·····˘ |
| Through ventures strange, a wondering child, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| In fantasy a Red Cross Knight, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Burning for her dear sake to fight. | 8 | /˘······ |
| If there be one who can, like her, | 8 | ········ |
| Make sunshine in life's shady places, | 9 | ·/···/˘/˘ |
| One in whose holy bosom stir | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| As many gentle household graces-- | 9 | ·/˘/˘/·/˘ |
| And such I think there needs must be-- | 8 | ········ |
| Will she accept this book from me? | 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.