Sorrowing Love
And again the flowers are comeAnd the light shakes,And no tiny voice is dumb,And a bud breaksOn the humble bush and the proud restless tree.Come with me!
Look, this little flower is pink,And this one white.Here’s a pearl cup for your drink,Here’s for your delightA yellow one, sweet with honey,Here’s fairy moneySilver brightScattered over the grassAs we pass.
Here’s moss. How the smell of it lingersOn my cold fingers!You shall have no moss. Here’s a frailHyacinth, deathly pale.Not for you, not for you!And the place where they grewYou must promise me not to discover,My sorrowful lover!Shall we never be happy again?Never again play?In vain—in vain!Come away!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- deathly a.
- Deadly; fatal; mortal; destructive.
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sorrowing Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59276; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Katherine Mansfield, Sorrowing Love, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/sorrowing-love.html, id L27612.
Form and metre
Sorrowing Love is 27 lines in 3 stanzas.
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 ABABCC comeA · shakesB · dumbA · breaksB · treeC · meC
- 2 ABABCCBDD pinkA · whiteB · drinkA · delightB · honeyC · moneyC · brightB · grassD · passD
- 3 AABBCCDDEFEF lingersA · fingersA · frailB · paleB · youC · grewC · discoverD · loverD · againE · playF · vainE · awayF
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| And again the flowers are come | 8 | ·˘/·/˘·· |
| And the light shakes, | 4 | ···· |
| And no tiny voice is dumb, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And a bud breaks | 4 | ···· |
| On the humble bush and the proud restless tree. | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| Come with me! | 3 | ··· |
| Look, this little flower is pink, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| And this one white. | 4 | ···· |
| Here’s a pearl cup for your drink, | 7 | ······· |
| Here’s for your delight | 5 | ···˘/ |
| A yellow one, sweet with honey, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Here’s fairy money | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Silver bright | 3 | /˘· |
| Scattered over the grass | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| As we pass. | 3 | ··· |
| Here’s moss. How the smell of it lingers | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| On my cold fingers! | 5 | ···/˘ |
| You shall have no moss. Here’s a frail | 8 | ········ |
| Hyacinth, deathly pale. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Not for you, not for you! | 6 | ······ |
| And the place where they grew | 6 | ······ |
| You must promise me not to discover, | 10 | ··/˘···˘/˘ |
| My sorrowful lover! | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Shall we never be happy again? | 8 | ··/·/˘˘/ |
| Never again play? | 5 | /˘˘/· |
| In vain—in vain! | 4 | ···· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
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.