Disappointment
‘The bliss which woman’s charms bespeak,I’ve sought in many, found in none!’‘In many ’tis in vain you seekWhat only can be found in one.’
Words in this poem
- bespeak v. t.
- To speak or arrange for beforehand; to order or engage against a future time; as, to bespeak goods, a right, or a favor. [OE. bispeken, AS. besprecan, to speak to, accuse; pref. be- + sprecan to speak. See Speak.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Disappointment is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Angel in the House, Project Gutenberg ebook #4099; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Coventry Patmore, Disappointment, in The Angel in the House (1854–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4099, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/patmore-angel/disappointment.html, id L12307.
Form and metre
Disappointment is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables.
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 ABAB bespeakA · noneB · seekA · oneB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ‘The bliss which woman’s charms bespeak, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| I’ve sought in many, found in none!’ | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| ‘In many ’tis in vain you seek | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| What only can be found in one.’ | 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.