Wolfram’s Dirge
If thou wilt ease thine heartOf love and all its smart,Then sleep, dear, sleep;And not a sorrowHang any tear on your eyelashes;Lie still and deep,Sad soul, until the sea-wave washesThe rim of the sun to-morrow,In eastern sky.
But wilt thou cure thine heartOf love and all its smart,Then die, dear, die;’Tis deeper, sweeter,Than on a rose-bank to lie dreamingWith folded eye;And there alone, amid the beamingOf Love’s stars, thou’lt meet herIn eastern sky.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wolfram’s Dirge 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 Lovell Beddoes, Wolfram’s Dirge, in Poems (1803–1849), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-thomas-lovell-beddoes/wolframs-dirge.html, id L16204.
Form and metre
Wolfram’s Dirge is 18 lines in 2 stanzas of 9 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter. 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AABC-B-C- heartA · smartA · sleepB · sorrowC · eyelashes · deepB · washes · morrowC · sky
- 2 AAB-CBC-B heartA · smartA · dieB · sweeter · dreamingC · eyeB · beamingC · her · skyB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If thou wilt ease thine heart | 6 | ······ |
| Of love and all its smart, | 6 | ······ |
| Then sleep, dear, sleep; | 4 | ···· |
| And not a sorrow | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Hang any tear on your eyelashes; | 9 | ·/˘···/·˘ |
| Lie still and deep, | 4 | ···· |
| Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The rim of the sun to-morrow, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In eastern sky. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| But wilt thou cure thine heart | 6 | ······ |
| Of love and all its smart, | 6 | ······ |
| Then die, dear, die; | 4 | ···· |
| ’Tis deeper, sweeter, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Than on a rose-bank to lie dreaming | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| With folded eye; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And there alone, amid the beaming | 9 | ··˘/˘/·/˘ |
| Of Love’s stars, thou’lt meet her | 6 | ······ |
| In eastern sky. | 4 | ·/˘· |
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.