Amor Mundi
'Oh, where are you going with your love-locks flowingOn the west wind blowing along this valley track?''The downhill path is easy, come with me an' it please ye,We shall escape the uphill by never turning back.'
So they two went together in glowing August weather,The honey-breathing heather lay to their left and right;And dear she was to doat on, her swift feet seemed to float onThe air like soft twin pigeons too sportive to alight.
'Oh, what is that in heaven where grey cloud-flakes are seven,Where blackest clouds hang riven just at the rainy skirt?''Oh, that's a meteor sent us, a message dumb, portentous,--An undeciphered solemn signal of help or hurt.'
'Oh, what is that glides quickly where velvet flowers grow thickly,Their scent comes rich and sickly?'--'A scaled and hooded worm.''Oh, what's that in the hollow, so pale I quake to follow?''Oh, that's a thin dead body which waits th' eternal term.'
'Turn again, O my sweetest,--turn again, false and fleetest:This way whereof thou weetest I fear is hell's own track.''Nay, too steep for hill-mounting,--nay, too late for cost-counting:This downhill path is easy, but there's no turning back.'
Words in this poem
- downhill adv.
- Towards the bottom of a hill; as, water runs downhill.
- 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,]
- uphill adv.
- Upwards on, or as on, a hillside; as, to walk uphill.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- portentous a.
- Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreschadowing, esp. foreschadowing ill; ominous. [L. portentosus.]
- scaled a.
- Covered with scales, or scalelike structures; -- said of a fish, a reptile, a moth, etc.
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amor Mundi 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, Amor Mundi, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/amor-mundi.html, id L04367.
Form and metre
Amor Mundi is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 71% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.1 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in alexandrines.
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 flowing · trackA · ye · backA
- 2 -A-A weather · rightA · on · alightA
- 3 -A-A seven · skirtA · portentous · hurtA
- 4 -A-A thickly · wormA · follow · termA
- 5 -A-A fleetest · trackA · counting · backA
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'Oh, where are you going with your love-locks flowing | 12 | ····/˘····/˘ |
| On the west wind blowing along this valley track?' | 12 | ····/˘˘/·/˘· |
| 'The downhill path is easy, come with me an' it please ye, | 14 | ·//··/˘······· |
| We shall escape the uphill by never turning back.' | 13 | ··˘/·//·/˘/˘· |
| So they two went together in glowing August weather, | 14 | ····˘/˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| The honey-breathing heather lay to their left and right; | 13 | ·/˘/˘/˘······ |
| And dear she was to doat on, her swift feet seemed to float on | 14 | ·············· |
| The air like soft twin pigeons too sportive to alight. | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| 'Oh, what is that in heaven where grey cloud-flakes are seven, | 14 | ·····/˘·····/˘ |
| Where blackest clouds hang riven just at the rainy skirt?' | 13 | ·/˘··/˘···/˘· |
| 'Oh, that's a meteor sent us, a message dumb, portentous,-- | 14 | ···/˘···/˘·˘/˘ |
| An undeciphered solemn signal of help or hurt.' | 13 | ·····/˘/˘···· |
| 'Oh, what is that glides quickly where velvet flowers grow thickly, | 14 | ·····/˘·/˘/·/˘ |
| Their scent comes rich and sickly?'--'A scaled and hooded worm.' | 13 | ·····/˘···/˘· |
| 'Oh, what's that in the hollow, so pale I quake to follow?' | 14 | ·····/˘·····/˘ |
| 'Oh, that's a thin dead body which waits th' eternal term.' | 13 | ·····/˘··˘/˘· |
| 'Turn again, O my sweetest,--turn again, false and fleetest: | 14 | ·˘/··/˘·˘/··/˘ |
| This way whereof thou weetest I fear is hell's own track.' | 13 | ············· |
| 'Nay, too steep for hill-mounting,--nay, too late for cost-counting: | 14 | ·····/˘·····/˘ |
| This downhill path is easy, but there's no turning back.' | 13 | ·//··/˘···/˘· |
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.