Poems
More love or more disdain I crave,Sweet, be not still indifferent:O send me quickly to my grave,Or else afford me more content!Or love or hate me more or less,For love abhors all lukewarmness.
Give me a tempest if ’twill driveMe to the place where I would be;Or if you’ll have me still alive,Confess you will be kind to me.Give hopes of bliss or dig my grave:More love or more disdain I crave.
Words in this poem
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- twill v. i.
- To weave, as cloth, so as to produce the appearance of diagonal lines or ribs on the surface. [Scotch tweel; probably from LG. twillen to make double, from twi- two; akin to AS. twi-, E. twi- in twilight. See Twice, and cf. Tweed, Tweel.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poems is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles Webbe, Poems, text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-charles-webbe/against-indifference.html, id L16123.
Form and metre
Against Indifference is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% 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 A-A-BB craveA · indifferent · graveA · content · lessB · lukewarmnessB
- 2 ABABCC driveA · beB · aliveA · meB · graveC · craveC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| More love or more disdain I crave, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Sweet, be not still indifferent: | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| O send me quickly to my grave, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or else afford me more content! | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| Or love or hate me more or less, | 8 | ········ |
| For love abhors all lukewarmness. | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| Give me a tempest if ’twill drive | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Me to the place where I would be; | 8 | ········ |
| Or if you’ll have me still alive, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Confess you will be kind to me. | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Give hopes of bliss or dig my grave: | 8 | ········ |
| More love or more disdain I crave. | 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.