Dost Thou Not Care?
I love and love not: Lord, it breaks my heartTo love and not to love.Thou veiled within Thy glory, gone apartInto Thy shrine, which is above,Dost Thou not love me, Lord, or careFor this mine ill?--I love thee here or there,I will accept thy broken heart, lie still.
Lord, it was well with me in time gone byThat cometh not again,When I was fresh and cheerful, who but I?I fresh, I cheerful: worn with painNow, out of sight and out of heart;O Lord, how long?--I watch thee as thou art,I will accept thy fainting heart, be strong.
'Lie still,' 'be strong,' to-day; but, Lord, to-morrow,What of to-morrow, Lord?Shall there be rest from toil, be truce from sorrow,Be living green upon the swardNow but a barren grave to me,Be joy for sorrow?--Did I not die for thee?Did I not live for thee? Leave Me to-morrow.
Words in this poem
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dost Thou Not Care? 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, Dost Thou Not Care?, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/dost-thou-not-care.html, id L04337.
Form and metre
Dost Thou Not Care? is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABABCDCD heartA · loveB · apartA · aboveB · careC · illD · thereC · stillD
- 2 ABABCDCD byA · againB · iA · painB · heartC · longD · artC · strongD
- 3 ABABCACA morrowA · lordB · sorrowA · swardB · meC · sorrowA · theeC · morrowA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I love and love not: Lord, it breaks my heart | 10 | ·········· |
| To love and not to love. | 6 | ······ |
| Thou veiled within Thy glory, gone apart | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Into Thy shrine, which is above, | 8 | ········ |
| Dost Thou not love me, Lord, or care | 8 | ········ |
| For this mine ill?-- | 4 | ···· |
| I love thee here or there, | 6 | ······ |
| I will accept thy broken heart, lie still. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Lord, it was well with me in time gone by | 10 | ·········· |
| That cometh not again, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| When I was fresh and cheerful, who but I? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I fresh, I cheerful: worn with pain | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Now, out of sight and out of heart; | 8 | ········ |
| O Lord, how long?-- | 4 | ···· |
| I watch thee as thou art, | 6 | ······ |
| I will accept thy fainting heart, be strong. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| 'Lie still,' 'be strong,' to-day; but, Lord, to-morrow, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| What of to-morrow, Lord? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Shall there be rest from toil, be truce from sorrow, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Be living green upon the sward | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Now but a barren grave to me, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Be joy for sorrow?-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Did I not die for thee? | 6 | ······ |
| Did I not live for thee? Leave Me to-morrow. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
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.