The One Lost
I mingle with your bones;You steal in subtle nooseThis lighted dust Jehovah loansAnd now I lose.
What will the Lender sayWhen I shall not be found,Safe-sheltered at the Judgment Day,Being in you bound?
He’ll hunt through wards of Heaven,Call to uncoffined earth“Where is this soul, unjudged, not givenDole for good’s dearth?”
And I, lying so safeWithin you, hearing all,To have cheated God shall laugh,Freed by your thrall.
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,]
- dearth n.
- Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The One Lost is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Isaac Rosenberg, Project Gutenberg ebook #66889; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Isaac Rosenberg, The One Lost, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/the-one-lost.html, id L02534.
Form and metre
The One Lost is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short measure.
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- bonesA · noose · loansA · lose
- 2 ABAB sayA · foundB · dayA · boundB
- 3 -A-A heaven · earthA · given · dearthA
- 4 -A-A safe · allA · laugh · thrallA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I mingle with your bones; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| You steal in subtle noose | 6 | ···/˘· |
| This lighted dust Jehovah loans | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And now I lose. | 4 | ···· |
| What will the Lender say | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When I shall not be found, | 6 | ······ |
| Safe-sheltered at the Judgment Day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Being in you bound? | 5 | /˘··· |
| He’ll hunt through wards of Heaven, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Call to uncoffined earth | 6 | ······ |
| “Where is this soul, unjudged, not given | 8 | ·······/ |
| Dole for good’s dearth?” | 4 | ···· |
| And I, lying so safe | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Within you, hearing all, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To have cheated God shall laugh, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Freed by your thrall. | 4 | ···· |
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.