An End
Love, strong as Death, is dead.Come, let us make his bedAmong the dying flowers:A green turf at his head;And a stone at his feet,Whereon we may sitIn the quiet evening hours.
He was born in the Spring,And died before the harvesting:On the last warm summer dayHe left us; he would not stayFor Autumn twilight cold and grey.Sit we by his grave, and singHe is gone away.
To few chords and sad and lowSing we so:Be our eyes fixed on the grassShadow-veiled as the years passWhile we think of all that wasIn the long ago.
Words in this poem
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An End 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, An End, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/an-end.html, id L18525.
Form and metre
An End is 20 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 45% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABA--B deadA · bedA · flowersB · headA · feet · sit · hoursB
- 2 AABBBAB springA · harvestingA · dayB · stayB · greyB · singA · awayB
- 3 AABB-A lowA · soA · grassB · passB · was · agoA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love, strong as Death, is dead. | 6 | ······ |
| Come, let us make his bed | 6 | ······ |
| Among the dying flowers: | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| A green turf at his head; | 6 | ······ |
| And a stone at his feet, | 6 | ······ |
| Whereon we may sit | 5 | ˘/··· |
| In the quiet evening hours. | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| He was born in the Spring, | 6 | ······ |
| And died before the harvesting: | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| On the last warm summer day | 7 | ····/˘· |
| He left us; he would not stay | 7 | ······· |
| For Autumn twilight cold and grey. | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Sit we by his grave, and sing | 7 | ······· |
| He is gone away. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| To few chords and sad and low | 7 | ······· |
| Sing we so: | 3 | ··· |
| Be our eyes fixed on the grass | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Shadow-veiled as the years pass | 8 | /··˘···· |
| While we think of all that was | 7 | ······· |
| In the long ago. | 5 | ···˘/ |
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.