From "Lost Alice"
Yes, dear, our Love is slain;In the cold grave for evermore it lies,Never to wake again,Or light our sorrow with its starry eyes;And so--regret is vain.
One hour of pain and dread,We killed our Love, we took its life awayWith the false words we said;And so we watch it, since that cruel day,Silent, and cold, and dead.
We should have seen it shineLong years beside us. Time and Death might tryTo touch that life divine,Whose strength could every other stroke defySave only thine and mine.
No longing can restoreOur dead again. Vain are the tears we weep,And vainly we deploreOur buried Love: its grave lies dark and deepBetween us evermore.
Words in this poem
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- defy v. t.
- To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [F. défier, OF. deffier, desfier, LL. disfidare to disown faith or fidelity, to dissolve the bond of allegiance, as between the vassal and his lord; hence, to ch]
- deplore v. t.
- To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From "Lost Alice" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Legends and Lyrics. Part 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #2304; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Adelaide Anne Procter, From "Lost Alice", in Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2304, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/procter-legends-lyrics/from-lost-alice.html, id L21787.
Form and metre
From "Lost Alice" is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABA. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABABA slainA · liesB · againA · eyesB · vainA
- 2 ABABA dreadA · awayB · saidA · dayB · deadA
- 3 ABABA shineA · tryB · divineA · defyB · mineA
- 4 ABABA restoreA · weepB · deploreA · deepB · evermoreA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Yes, dear, our Love is slain; | 6 | ··/··· |
| In the cold grave for evermore it lies, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Never to wake again, | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Or light our sorrow with its starry eyes; | 10 | ··//˘··/˘· |
| And so--regret is vain. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| One hour of pain and dread, | 6 | ·/···· |
| We killed our Love, we took its life away | 10 | ··/·····˘/ |
| With the false words we said; | 6 | ······ |
| And so we watch it, since that cruel day, | 9 | ·······/· |
| Silent, and cold, and dead. | 6 | /˘···· |
| We should have seen it shine | 6 | ······ |
| Long years beside us. Time and Death might try | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| To touch that life divine, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Whose strength could every other stroke defy | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Save only thine and mine. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| No longing can restore | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Our dead again. Vain are the tears we weep, | 10 | /·˘/······ |
| And vainly we deplore | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Our buried Love: its grave lies dark and deep | 10 | //˘······· |
| Between us evermore. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.