To Two Bereaved
You must be sad; for though it is to Heaven,’Tis hard to yield a little girl of seven.Alas, for me ’tis hard my grief to rule,Who only met her as she went to school;Who never heard the little lips so sweetSay even ‘Good-morning,’ though our eyes would meetAs whose would fain be friends! How must you sigh,Sick for your loss, when even so sad am I,Who never clasp’d the small hands any day!Fair flowers thrive round the little grave, I pray.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Two Bereaved 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: Thomas Ashe, To Two Bereaved, in Poems (1836–1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-ashe/to-two-bereaved.html, id L16250.
Form and metre
To Two Bereaved is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 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 heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEE heavenA · sevenA · ruleB · schoolB · sweetC · meetC · sighD · iD · dayE · prayE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You must be sad; for though it is to Heaven, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| ’Tis hard to yield a little girl of seven. | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Alas, for me ’tis hard my grief to rule, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Who only met her as she went to school; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Who never heard the little lips so sweet | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Say even ‘Good-morning,’ though our eyes would meet | 10 | ·/·/˘·/··· |
| As whose would fain be friends! How must you sigh, | 10 | ·········· |
| Sick for your loss, when even so sad am I, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Who never clasp’d the small hands any day! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Fair flowers thrive round the little grave, I pray. | 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.