Bitter for Sweet
Summer is gone with all its roses,Its sun and perfumes and sweet flowers,Its warm air and refreshing showers:And even Autumn closes.
Yea, Autumn's chilly self is going,And winter comes which is yet colder;Each day the hoar-frost waxes bolder,And the last buds cease blowing.
Words in this poem
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bitter for Sweet 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, Bitter for Sweet, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/bitter-for-sweet.html, id L04271.
Form and metre
Bitter for Sweet is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See 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 ABBA rosesA · flowersB · showersB · closesA
- 2 ABBA goingA · colderB · bolderB · blowingA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Summer is gone with all its roses, | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| Its sun and perfumes and sweet flowers, | 9 | ···˘/··/˘ |
| Its warm air and refreshing showers: | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| And even Autumn closes. | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Yea, Autumn's chilly self is going, | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| And winter comes which is yet colder; | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Each day the hoar-frost waxes bolder, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And the last buds cease blowing. | 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.