A Portrait I
She gave up beauty in her tender youth,Gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways;She covered up her eyes lest they should gazeOn vanity, and chose the bitter truth.Harsh towards herself, towards others full of ruth,Servant of servants, little known to praise,Long prayers and fasts trenched on her nights and days:She schooled herself to sights and sounds uncouthThat with the poor and stricken she might makeA home, until the least of all sufficedHer wants; her own self learned she to forsake,Counting all earthly gain but hurt and loss.So with calm will she chose and bore the crossAnd hated all for love of Jesus Christ.
Words in this poem
- ruth n.
- Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness. [From Rue, v.: cf. Icel. hryggedh, hrygedh.]
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Portrait I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, A Portrait I, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/a-portrait-i.html, id L04300.
Form and metre
A Portrait I is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDCEED youthA · waysB · gazeB · truthA · ruthA · praiseB · daysB · uncouthA · makeC · sufficedD · forsakeC · lossE · crossE · christD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| She gave up beauty in her tender youth, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Gave all her hope and joy and pleasant ways; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| She covered up her eyes lest they should gaze | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| On vanity, and chose the bitter truth. | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Harsh towards herself, towards others full of ruth, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Servant of servants, little known to praise, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Long prayers and fasts trenched on her nights and days: | 10 | ·········· |
| She schooled herself to sights and sounds uncouth | 10 | ··˘/····// |
| That with the poor and stricken she might make | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A home, until the least of all sufficed | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Her wants; her own self learned she to forsake, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Counting all earthly gain but hurt and loss. | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| So with calm will she chose and bore the cross | 10 | ·········· |
| And hated all for love of Jesus Christ. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
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.