Unknown Fair Faces
THOUGH I am faithful to my loves lived through,And place them among Memory’s great stars,Where burns a face like Hesper: one like Mars:Of visages I get a moment’s view,Sweet eyes that in the heaven of me, too,Ascend, tho’ virgin to my life they passed.Lo, these within my destiny seem glassedAt times so bright, I wish that Hope were new.A gracious freckled lady, tall and grave,Went, in a shawl voluminous and white,Last sunset by; and going sow’d a glance.Earth is too poor to hold a second chance;I will not ask for more than Fortune gave:My heart she goes from—never from my sight!
Words in this poem
- hesper n.
- The evening; Hesperus. [See Hesperian.]
- freckled a.
- Marked with freckles; spotted.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- voluminous a.
- Of or pertaining to volume or volumes. Specifically: -- (a) Consisting of many folds, coils, or convolutions. [L. voluminosus: cf. F. volumineux.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Unknown Fair Faces is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #1381; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Meredith, Unknown Fair Faces, in Poems, Volume I (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/unknown-fair-faces.html, id L13202.
Form and metre
Unknown Fair Faces is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAACCADEFFDE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% 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 ABBAACCADEFFDE throughA · starsB · marsB · viewA · tooA · passedC · glassedC · newA · graveD · whiteE · glanceF · chanceF · gaveD · sightE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THOUGH I am faithful to my loves lived through, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And place them among Memory’s great stars, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Where burns a face like Hesper: one like Mars: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of visages I get a moment’s view, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Sweet eyes that in the heaven of me, too, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ascend, tho’ virgin to my life they passed. | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Lo, these within my destiny seem glassed | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| At times so bright, I wish that Hope were new. | 10 | ·········· |
| A gracious freckled lady, tall and grave, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Went, in a shawl voluminous and white, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Last sunset by; and going sow’d a glance. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Earth is too poor to hold a second chance; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I will not ask for more than Fortune gave: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My heart she goes from—never from my sight! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.