Love Serviceable
What measure Fate to him shall meteIs not the noble Lover’s care;He’s heart-sick with a longing sweetTo make her happy as she’s fair.Oh, misery, should she him refuse,And so her dearest good mistake!His own success he thus pursuesWith frantic zeal for her sole sake.To lose her were his life to blight,Being loss to hers; to make her his,Except as helping her delight,He calls but incidental bliss;And holding life as so much pelfTo buy her posies, learns this lore:He does not rightly love himselfWho does not love another more.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- mete v. i.
- To dream; also impersonally; as, me mette, I dreamed. [AS. m.]
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
- rightly adv.
- Straightly; directly; in front. [AS. richtlice.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love Serviceable 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, Love Serviceable, in The Angel in the House (1854–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4099, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/patmore-angel/love-serviceable.html, id L12245.
Form and metre
Love Serviceable is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 31% 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 ABABCDCDE-E-FGFG meteA · careB · sweetA · fairB · refuseC · mistakeD · pursuesC · sakeD · blightE · his · delightE · bliss · pelfF · loreG · himselfF · moreG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What measure Fate to him shall mete | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Is not the noble Lover’s care; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| He’s heart-sick with a longing sweet | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To make her happy as she’s fair. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Oh, misery, should she him refuse, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And so her dearest good mistake! | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| His own success he thus pursues | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| With frantic zeal for her sole sake. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To lose her were his life to blight, | 8 | ········ |
| Being loss to hers; to make her his, | 8 | /······· |
| Except as helping her delight, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| He calls but incidental bliss; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And holding life as so much pelf | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To buy her posies, learns this lore: | 7 | ······· |
| He does not rightly love himself | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Who does not love another more. | 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.