Wedded
They leave their love-lorn haunts,Their sigh-warm floating Eden;And they are mute at once,Mortals by God unheeden,By their past kisses chidden.
But they have kist and knownClear things we dim by guesses—Spirit to spirit grown:Heaven, born in hand-caresses.Love, fall from sheltering tresses.
And they are dumb and strange:Bared trees bowed from each other.Their last green interchangeWhat lost dreams shall discover?Dead, strayed, to love-strange lover.
Words in this poem
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
- kist n.
- A chest; hence, a coffin. Jamieson. [See Chest.]
- 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,]
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wedded 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, Wedded, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/wedded.html, id L02535.
Form and metre
Wedded is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 13% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-AA haunts · edenA · once · unheedenA · chiddenA
- 2 ABABB knownA · guessesB · grownA · caressesB · tressesB
- 3 A-ABB strangeA · other · interchangeA · discoverB · loverB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They leave their love-lorn haunts, | 6 | ······ |
| Their sigh-warm floating Eden; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And they are mute at once, | 6 | ······ |
| Mortals by God unheeden, | 7 | /˘····· |
| By their past kisses chidden. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But they have kist and known | 6 | ······ |
| Clear things we dim by guesses— | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Spirit to spirit grown: | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Heaven, born in hand-caresses. | 7 | /···˘/˘ |
| Love, fall from sheltering tresses. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And they are dumb and strange: | 6 | ······ |
| Bared trees bowed from each other. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Their last green interchange | 6 | ····˘/ |
| What lost dreams shall discover? | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Dead, strayed, to love-strange lover. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.