Dead Hope
Hope new born one pleasant mornDied at even;Hope dead lives nevermore.No, not in heaven.
If his shroud were but a cloudTo weep itself away;Or were he buried undergroundTo sprout some day!But dead and gone is dead and goneVainly wept upon.
Nought we place above his faceTo mark the spot,But it shows a barren placeIn our lot.Hope has birth no more on earthMorn or even;Hope dead lives nevermore,No, not in heaven.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- nevermore adv.
- Never again; at no time hereafter. Testament of Love. Tyndale.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dead Hope 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, Dead Hope, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/dead-hope.html, id L04354.
Form and metre
Dead Hope is 18 lines in 3 stanzas. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 2 -A-A-- cloud · awayA · underground · dayA · gone · upon
- 3 ABAB---- faceA · spotB · placeA · lotB · earth · even · nevermore · heaven
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hope new born one pleasant morn | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Died at even; | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Hope dead lives nevermore. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| No, not in heaven. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| If his shroud were but a cloud | 7 | ······· |
| To weep itself away; | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| Or were he buried underground | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To sprout some day! | 4 | ···· |
| But dead and gone is dead and gone | 8 | ········ |
| Vainly wept upon. | 5 | /˘··· |
| Nought we place above his face | 7 | ······· |
| To mark the spot, | 4 | ···· |
| But it shows a barren place | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In our lot. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Hope has birth no more on earth | 7 | ······· |
| Morn or even; | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Hope dead lives nevermore, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| No, not in heaven. | 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.