Sea Love
Tide be runnin’ the great world over:T’was only last June month I mind that weWas thinkin’ the toss and the call in the breast of the loverSo everlastin’ as the sea.
Heer’s the same little fishes that sputter and swim,Wi’ the moon’s old glim on the grey, wet sand;An’ him no more to me nor me to himThan the wind goin’ over my hand.
Words in this poem
- sputter v. i.
- To spit, or to emit saliva from the mouth in small, scattered portions, as in rapid speaking. [From the root of spout or spit to eject from the mputh. Cf. Splutter.]
- glim n.
- Brightness; splendor.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sea Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from The farmer's bride, Project Gutenberg ebook #71305; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte Mew, Sea Love, in The Farmer's Bride (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71305, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mew-farmers-bride/sea-love.html, id L02477.
Form and metre
Sea Love is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 -A-A over · weA · lover · seaA
- 2 ABAB swimA · sandB · himA · handB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tide be runnin’ the great world over: | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| T’was only last June month I mind that we | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Was thinkin’ the toss and the call in the breast of the lover | 15 | ·/˘··········/˘ |
| So everlastin’ as the sea. | 8 | ········ |
| Heer’s the same little fishes that sputter and swim, | 13 | /˘··/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Wi’ the moon’s old glim on the grey, wet sand; | 10 | ·········· |
| An’ him no more to me nor me to him | 10 | ·········· |
| Than the wind goin’ over my hand. | 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.