A Song: Absent from thee I languish still
Absent from thee I languish still;Then ask me not, When I return?The straying Fool 'twill plainly kill,To wish all Day, all Night to mourn.
Dear, from thine Arms then let me fly,That my fantastick Mind may prove,The Torments it deserves to try,That tears my fix, Heart from my Love.
When wearied with a World of Woe,To thy safe Bosom I retire,Where Love and Peace and Truth does flow,May I contented there expire.
Left once more wandring from that Heav'n,I fall on some base Heart unblest;Faithless to thee, false, unforgiven,And lose my everlasting Rest.
Words in this poem
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- unblest a.
- Not blest; excluded from benediction; hence, accursed; wretched. [Pref. un- not + blessed, blest.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song: Absent from thee I languish still is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of the Right Honourable John, Earl of Rochester Consisting of Satires, Songs, Translations, and other Occasional Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44891; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Wilmot Rochester, A Song: Absent from thee I languish still, in The Works of the Earl of Rochester (1680), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44891, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rochester-works/a-song-absent-from-thee-i-languish-still.html, id L20441.
Form and metre
A Song: Absent from thee I languish still is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 A-A- stillA · return · killA · mourn
- 2 ABAB flyA · proveB · tryA · loveB
- 3 ABAB woeA · retireB · flowA · expireB
- 4 -A-A heav'n · unblestA · unforgiven · restA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Absent from thee I languish still; | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Then ask me not, When I return? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The straying Fool 'twill plainly kill, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To wish all Day, all Night to mourn. | 8 | ········ |
| Dear, from thine Arms then let me fly, | 8 | ········ |
| That my fantastick Mind may prove, | 8 | ········ |
| The Torments it deserves to try, | 8 | ·/··˘/·· |
| That tears my fix, Heart from my Love. | 8 | ········ |
| When wearied with a World of Woe, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To thy safe Bosom I retire, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Where Love and Peace and Truth does flow, | 8 | ········ |
| May I contented there expire. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Left once more wandring from that Heav'n, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I fall on some base Heart unblest; | 8 | ········ |
| Faithless to thee, false, unforgiven, | 9 | /˘····˘/˘ |
| And lose my everlasting Rest. | 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.