From
Within the kingdom of my SoulI bid you enter, Love, to-day;Submit my life to your control,And give my Heart up to your sway.
My Past, whose light and life is flown,Shall live through memory for you still;Take all my Present for your own,And mould my Future to your will.
One only thought remains apart,And will for ever so remain;There is one Chamber in my heartWhere even you might knock in vain.
A haunted Chamber:- long agoI closed it, and I cast the keyWhere deep and bitter waters flow,Into a vast and silent sea.
Dear, it is haunted. All the restIs yours; but I have shut that doorFor ever now. 'Tis even bestThat I should enter it no more.
No more. It is not well to stayWith ghosts; their very look would scareYour joyous, loving smile away--So never try to enter there.
Check, if you love me, all regretThat this one thought remains apart:-Now let us smile, dear, and forgetThe haunted Chamber in my Heart.
Words in this poem
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- 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,]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- scare v. t.
- To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm. [OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar, prevent, skirrask to shun , shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre, adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From 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, in Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2304, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/procter-legends-lyrics/from.html, id L21788.
Form and metre
From is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 soulA · dayB · controlA · swayB
- 2 ABAB flownA · stillB · ownA · willB
- 3 ABAB apartA · remainB · heartA · vainB
- 4 ABAB agoA · keyB · flowA · seaB
- 5 ABAB restA · doorB · bestA · moreB
- 6 ABAB stayA · scareB · awayA · thereB
- 7 ABAB regretA · apartB · forgetA · heartB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Within the kingdom of my Soul | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I bid you enter, Love, to-day; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Submit my life to your control, | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| And give my Heart up to your sway. | 8 | ········ |
| My Past, whose light and life is flown, | 8 | ········ |
| Shall live through memory for you still; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Take all my Present for your own, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And mould my Future to your will. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| One only thought remains apart, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| And will for ever so remain; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| There is one Chamber in my heart | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Where even you might knock in vain. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A haunted Chamber:- long ago | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| I closed it, and I cast the key | 8 | ········ |
| Where deep and bitter waters flow, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Into a vast and silent sea. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Dear, it is haunted. All the rest | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is yours; but I have shut that door | 8 | ········ |
| For ever now. 'Tis even best | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That I should enter it no more. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No more. It is not well to stay | 8 | ········ |
| With ghosts; their very look would scare | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Your joyous, loving smile away-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| So never try to enter there. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Check, if you love me, all regret | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That this one thought remains apart:- | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Now let us smile, dear, and forget | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The haunted Chamber in my Heart. | 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.