The Difference
When we were together, heart of my heart, on that unforgotten quest,With your tender arm about me thrown and your head upon my breast,There came a grief that was bitter and deep and straitly dwell with me,And I shunned it not, so sweet it was to suffer and be with thee.
And now when no more against mine own is beating thine eager heart,When thine eyes are turned from the glance of mine and our ways are far apart,A dear and long-sought joy has come my constant guest to be,And I love it not, so bitter it is, unfelt, unshared, by thee.
Words in this poem
- straitly adv.
- In a strait manner; narrowly; strictly; rigorously. Mark i. 43.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Difference is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, The Difference, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-difference.html, id L29443.
Form and metre
The Difference is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 AABB questA · breastA · meB · theeB
- 2 AABB heartA · apartA · beB · theeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When we were together, heart of my heart, on that unforgotten quest, | 17 | ···˘/˘··········· |
| With your tender arm about me thrown and your head upon my breast, | 16 | ··/˘············ |
| There came a grief that was bitter and deep and straitly dwell with me, | 16 | ······/˘···/˘··· |
| And I shunned it not, so sweet it was to suffer and be with thee. | 16 | ··········/˘···· |
| And now when no more against mine own is beating thine eager heart, | 16 | ··········/˘·/˘· |
| When thine eyes are turned from the glance of mine and our ways are far apart, | 17 | ···········/···˘/ |
| A dear and long-sought joy has come my constant guest to be, | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| And I love it not, so bitter it is, unfelt, unshared, by thee. | 16 | ······/˘········ |
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.