The Poet Sings to His Poet
From dawn to dusk, and from dusk to dawn,We two are sundered always, sweet.A few stars shake o'er the rocky lawnAnd the cold sea-shore when we meet.The twilight comes with thy shadowy feet.
We are not day and night, my Fair,But one. It is an hour of hours.And thoughts that are not otherwhereAre thought here 'mid the blown sea-flowers,This meeting and this dusk of ours.
Delight has taken Pain to her heart,And there is dusk and stars for these.Oh, linger, linger! They would not part;And the wild wind comes from over-seasWith a new song to the olive trees.
And when we meet by the sounding pineSleep draws near to his dreamless brother.And when thy sweet eyes answer mine,Peace nestles close to her mournful mother,And Hope and Weariness kiss each other.
Words in this poem
- otherwhere adv.
- In or to some other place, or places; elsewhere.
- dreamless a.
- Free from, or without, dreams. Camden.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poet Sings to His Poet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1186; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alice Meynell, The Poet Sings to His Poet, in Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1186, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meynell-poems/the-poet-sings-to-his-poet.html, id L12860.
Form and metre
The Poet Sings to His Poet is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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 ABABB dawnA · sweetB · lawnA · meetB · feetB
- 2 ABABB fairA · hoursB · otherwhereA · flowersB · oursB
- 3 ABABB heartA · theseB · partA · seasB · treesB
- 4 ABABB pineA · brotherB · mineA · motherB · otherB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From dawn to dusk, and from dusk to dawn, | 9 | ········· |
| We two are sundered always, sweet. | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| A few stars shake o'er the rocky lawn | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And the cold sea-shore when we meet. | 8 | ········ |
| The twilight comes with thy shadowy feet. | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| We are not day and night, my Fair, | 8 | ········ |
| But one. It is an hour of hours. | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| And thoughts that are not otherwhere | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Are thought here 'mid the blown sea-flowers, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| This meeting and this dusk of ours. | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Delight has taken Pain to her heart, | 9 | ˘/·/˘···· |
| And there is dusk and stars for these. | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, linger, linger! They would not part; | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| And the wild wind comes from over-seas | 8 | ········ |
| With a new song to the olive trees. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And when we meet by the sounding pine | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Sleep draws near to his dreamless brother. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And when thy sweet eyes answer mine, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Peace nestles close to her mournful mother, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘/˘ |
| And Hope and Weariness kiss each other. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
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.