Long Barren
Thou who didst hang upon a barren tree,My God, for me;Though I till now be barren, now at lengthLord, give me strengthTo bring forth fruit to Thee.
Thou who didst bear for me the crown of thorn,Spitting and scorn;Though I till now have put forth thorns, yet nowStrengthen me ThouThat better fruit be borne.
Thou Rose of Sharon, Cedar of broad roots,Vine of sweet fruits,Thou Lily of the vale with fadeless leaf,Of thousands Chief,Feed Thou my feeble shoots.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- fadeless a.
- Not liable to fade; unfading.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Long Barren 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, Long Barren, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/long-barren.html, id L04335.
Form and metre
Long Barren is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBA, the Limerick. 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 6.8 syllables. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other limericks, 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 AABBA treeA · meA · lengthB · strengthB · theeA
- 2 AABBA thornA · scornA · nowB · thouB · borneA
- 3 AABBA rootsA · fruitsA · leafB · chiefB · shootsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou who didst hang upon a barren tree, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My God, for me; | 4 | ···· |
| Though I till now be barren, now at length | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Lord, give me strength | 4 | ···· |
| To bring forth fruit to Thee. | 6 | ······ |
| Thou who didst bear for me the crown of thorn, | 10 | ·········· |
| Spitting and scorn; | 4 | /˘·· |
| Though I till now have put forth thorns, yet now | 10 | ·········· |
| Strengthen me Thou | 4 | /˘·· |
| That better fruit be borne. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thou Rose of Sharon, Cedar of broad roots, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Vine of sweet fruits, | 4 | ···· |
| Thou Lily of the vale with fadeless leaf, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Of thousands Chief, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Feed Thou my feeble shoots. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.