The Progress of Love (A Lyrical Symphony) III
They have forgotten all that vanished awayWhen life's dark night died into death's bright dayThey have forgotten all except the gleamOf light when once he kissed her in a dreamOnce on the lips and once upon the browIn the white orb of God's transcendent Now;And even then he knew that, long before,Their eyes had met upon some distant shore;Yea; that most lonely and immortal faceWhich dwells beyond the dreams of time and spaceBowed down to him from out the happy placeAnd whispered to him, low and sweet and lowIn other worlds I loved you, long ago;And then he knew his love could never dieBecause his queen was throned beyond the skyAnd called him to his own immortal sphereForgetting Launcelot and Guinevere.
So Yrma reigns with Arthur, and they knowThey loved on earth a million years ago;And watched the sea-waves wistfully westward wend;And heard a voice whispering in their flow,And calling through the silent sunset-glow,Love that hath no beginning hath no end.
Words in this poem
- wend n.
- A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Progress of Love (A Lyrical Symphony) III 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, The Progress of Love (A Lyrical Symphony) III, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/the-progress-of-love-a-lyrical-symphony-iii.html, id L21435.
Form and metre
The Progress of Love (A Lyrical Symphony) III is 23 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 AABBCCDDEEEFFGGHH awayA · dayA · gleamB · dreamB · browC · nowC · beforeD · shoreD · faceE · spaceE · placeE · lowF · agoF · dieG · skyG · sphereH · guinevereH
- 2 AABAAB knowA · agoA · wendB · flowA · glowA · endB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They have forgotten all that vanished away | 11 | ··˘/˘··/˘˘/ |
| When life's dark night died into death's bright day | 10 | ·········· |
| They have forgotten all except the gleam | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Of light when once he kissed her in a dream | 10 | ·········· |
| Once on the lips and once upon the brow | 10 | ·········· |
| In the white orb of God's transcendent Now; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And even then he knew that, long before, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Their eyes had met upon some distant shore; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yea; that most lonely and immortal face | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Which dwells beyond the dreams of time and space | 10 | ·········· |
| Bowed down to him from out the happy place | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And whispered to him, low and sweet and low | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| In other worlds I loved you, long ago; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And then he knew his love could never die | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Because his queen was throned beyond the sky | 10 | ·········· |
| And called him to his own immortal sphere | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Forgetting Launcelot and Guinevere. | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| So Yrma reigns with Arthur, and they know | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| They loved on earth a million years ago; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And watched the sea-waves wistfully westward wend; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And heard a voice whispering in their flow, | 10 | ····/˘˘··· |
| And calling through the silent sunset-glow, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| Love that hath no beginning hath no end. | 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.