Life and Death
Life is not sweet. One day it will be sweetTo shut our eyes and die:Nor feel the wild flowers blow, nor birds dart byWith flitting butterfly,Nor grass grow long above our heads and feet,Nor hear the happy lark that soars sky high,Nor sigh that spring is fleet and summer fleet,Nor mark the waxing wheat,Nor know who sits in our accustomed seat.
Life is not good. One day it will be goodTo die, then live again;To sleep meanwhile: so not to feel the waneOf shrunk leaves dropping in the wood,Nor hear the foamy lashing of the main,Nor mark the blackened bean-fields, nor where stoodRich ranks of golden grainOnly dead refuse stubble clothe the plain:Asleep from risk, asleep from pain.
Words in this poem
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- lashing n.
- The act of one who, or that which, lashes; castigation; chastisement. South. Lashing out, a striking out; also, extravagance.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Life and Death 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, Life and Death, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/life-and-death.html, id L04324.
Form and metre
Life and Death is 18 lines in 2 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBBABAAA sweetA · dieB · byB · butterflyB · feetA · highB · fleetA · wheatA · seatA
- 2 ABBABABBB goodA · againB · waneB · woodA · mainB · stoodA · grainB · plainB · painB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Life is not sweet. One day it will be sweet | 10 | ·········· |
| To shut our eyes and die: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Nor feel the wild flowers blow, nor birds dart by | 10 | ····/····· |
| With flitting butterfly, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Nor grass grow long above our heads and feet, | 10 | ······/··· |
| Nor hear the happy lark that soars sky high, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor sigh that spring is fleet and summer fleet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor mark the waxing wheat, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Nor know who sits in our accustomed seat. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Life is not good. One day it will be good | 10 | ·········· |
| To die, then live again; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| To sleep meanwhile: so not to feel the wane | 10 | ··/······· |
| Of shrunk leaves dropping in the wood, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor hear the foamy lashing of the main, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Nor mark the blackened bean-fields, nor where stood | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Rich ranks of golden grain | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Only dead refuse stubble clothe the plain: | 10 | /˘·˘//˘··· |
| Asleep from risk, asleep from pain. | 8 | ˘/··˘/·· |
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.