The Hope of My Heart
I left, to earth, a little maiden fair,With locks of gold, and eyes that shamed the light;I prayed that God might have her in His careAnd sight.
Earth's love was false; her voice, a siren's song;(Sweet mother-earth was but a lying name)The path she showed was but the path of wrongAnd shame.
"Cast her not out!" I cry. God's kind words come --"Her future is with Me, as was her past;It shall be My good will to bring her homeAt last."
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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hope of My Heart is in the public domain. This text is taken from In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John McCrae, The Hope of My Heart, in In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mccrae-flanders/the-hope-of-my-heart.html, id L17041.
Form and metre
The Hope of My Heart is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB fairA · lightB · careA · sightB
- 2 ABAB songA · nameB · wrongA · shameB
- 3 ABAB comeA · pastB · homeA · lastB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I left, to earth, a little maiden fair, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| With locks of gold, and eyes that shamed the light; | 10 | ·········· |
| I prayed that God might have her in His care | 10 | ·········· |
| And sight. | 2 | ·· |
| Earth's love was false; her voice, a siren's song; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| (Sweet mother-earth was but a lying name) | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The path she showed was but the path of wrong | 10 | ·········· |
| And shame. | 2 | ·· |
| "Cast her not out!" I cry. God's kind words come -- | 10 | ·········· |
| "Her future is with Me, as was her past; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| It shall be My good will to bring her home | 10 | ·········· |
| At last." | 2 | ·· |
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.