Poem XIV
And those two lovers only heard--Oh, love is a dream that knows no waking--Far away, one secret bird,Where all the roses breathed one word,And every crispel on the beach--Oh, love is a sea that is ever breaking!--Lisped it in a sweeter speech;As hand in hand, by the sunset seaThat breaks on the shores of mystery,They stood in the gates of the City of PainTo watch the wild waves flutter and beatIn roses of white soft light at their feet,Roses of delicate music and light,Music and moonlight under their feet.Crumbling and flashing and softly crashingIn rainbow colours that dazzle and waneAnd wither and waken and, wild with delight,Dance and dance to a mystic tuneAnd scatter their leaves in a flower-soft rainOver the shimmering golden shoreBetween the West and the waking moon,Between the sunset and the night;And then they sigh for the years of yoreAnd gather their glory together again,Petal by petal and gleam by gleam,Till, all in one rushing rose-bright streamThey dazzle back to the deep once more,For the dream of the sea is an endless dream,And love is a sea that hath no shore,And the roses dance as they danced before.
Words in this poem
- crashing n.
- The noise of many things falling and breaking at once.
- dazzle v. t.
- To overpower with light; to confuse the sight of by brilliance of light. [Freq. of daze.]
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem XIV is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, Poem XIV, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/poem-xiv.html, id L21446.
Form and metre
Poem XIV is 30 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
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 ABAACBC--DEEFE-DFGDHGFHDIIHIHH heardA · wakingB · birdA · wordA · beachC · breakingB · speechC · sea · mystery · painD · beatE · feetE · lightF · feetE · crashing · waneD · delightF · tuneG · rainD · shoreH · moonG · nightF · yoreH · againD · gleamI · streamI · moreH · dreamI · shoreH · beforeH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And those two lovers only heard | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| --Oh, love is a dream that knows no waking-- | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Far away, one secret bird, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Where all the roses breathed one word, | 9 | ···/˘·˘·· |
| And every crispel on the beach-- | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| Oh, love is a sea that is ever breaking!-- | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Lisped it in a sweeter speech; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| As hand in hand, by the sunset sea | 9 | ······/·· |
| That breaks on the shores of mystery, | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| They stood in the gates of the City of Pain | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| To watch the wild waves flutter and beat | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| In roses of white soft light at their feet, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Roses of delicate music and light, | 10 | /˘·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Music and moonlight under their feet. | 9 | /˘·/····· |
| Crumbling and flashing and softly crashing | 11 | /˘˘·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| In rainbow colours that dazzle and wane | 10 | ·/·/˘·/˘·· |
| And wither and waken and, wild with delight, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| Dance and dance to a mystic tune | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And scatter their leaves in a flower-soft rain | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Over the shimmering golden shore | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘· |
| Between the West and the waking moon, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Between the sunset and the night; | 8 | ···/···· |
| And then they sigh for the years of yore | 9 | ········· |
| And gather their glory together again, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| Petal by petal and gleam by gleam, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| Till, all in one rushing rose-bright stream | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| They dazzle back to the deep once more, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| For the dream of the sea is an endless dream, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And love is a sea that hath no shore, | 9 | ········· |
| And the roses dance as they danced before. | 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.