'No, Thank You, John'
I never said I loved you, John:Why will you tease me day by day,And wax a weariness to think uponWith always 'do' and 'pray'?
You know I never loved you, John;No fault of mine made me your toast:Why will you haunt me with a face as wanAs shows an hour-old ghost?
I dare say Meg or Moll would takePity upon you, if you'd ask:And pray don't remain single for my sakeWho can't perform that task.
I have no heart?--Perhaps I have not;But then you're mad to take offenceThat I don't give you what I have not got:Use your own common sense.
Let bygones be bygones:Don't call me false, who owed not to be true:I'd rather answer 'No' to fifty JohnsThan answer 'Yes' to you.
Let's mar our pleasant days no more,Song-birds of passage, days of youth:Catch at to-day, forget the days before:I'll wink at your untruth.
Let us strike hands as hearty friends;No more, no less; and friendship's good:Only don't keep in view ulterior ends,And points not understood
In open treaty. Rise aboveQuibbles and shuffling off and on:Here's friendship for you if you like; but love,--No, thank you, John.
Words in this poem
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- moll a.
- Minor; in the minor mode; as, A moll, that is, A minor. [G., fr. L. mollis soft, tender, elegiac. Cf. Molle.]
- offence n.
- The act of offending in any sense; esp., a crime or a sin, an affront or an injury. [F., fr. L. offensa. See Offend.]
- untruth n.
- The quality of being untrue; contrariety to truth; want of veracity; also, treachery; faithlessness; disloyalty.
- ulterior a.
- Situated beyond, or on the farther side; thither; -- correlative with hither. [L., comp. of ultra, ultro, beyond, on the other side, properly cases of an old adjective, formed with a comparative suffix, which is akin to OL. uls beyond, L. ]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
'No, Thank You, John' 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, 'No, Thank You, John', in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/no-thank-you-john.html, id L04260.
Form and metre
'No, Thank You, John' is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 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 ABAB johnA · dayB · uponA · prayB
- 2 ABAB johnA · toastB · wanA · ghostB
- 3 ABAB takeA · askB · sakeA · taskB
- 4 ABAB notA · offenceB · gotA · senseB
- 5 -A-A bygones · trueA · johns · youA
- 6 ABAB moreA · youthB · beforeA · untruthB
- 7 ABAB friendsA · goodB · endsA · understoodB
- 8 ABAB aboveA · onB · loveA · johnB
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 never said I loved you, John: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Why will you tease me day by day, | 8 | ········ |
| And wax a weariness to think upon | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| With always 'do' and 'pray'? | 6 | ·/···· |
| You know I never loved you, John; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No fault of mine made me your toast: | 8 | ········ |
| Why will you haunt me with a face as wan | 10 | ·········· |
| As shows an hour-old ghost? | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| I dare say Meg or Moll would take | 8 | ········ |
| Pity upon you, if you'd ask: | 8 | /˘······ |
| And pray don't remain single for my sake | 10 | ···˘//˘··· |
| Who can't perform that task. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| I have no heart?--Perhaps I have not; | 9 | ····˘/··· |
| But then you're mad to take offence | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That I don't give you what I have not got: | 10 | ·········· |
| Use your own common sense. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Let bygones be bygones: | 6 | ·/··/· |
| Don't call me false, who owed not to be true: | 10 | ·········· |
| I'd rather answer 'No' to fifty Johns | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Than answer 'Yes' to you. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Let's mar our pleasant days no more, | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| Song-birds of passage, days of youth: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Catch at to-day, forget the days before: | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| I'll wink at your untruth. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Let us strike hands as hearty friends; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| No more, no less; and friendship's good: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Only don't keep in view ulterior ends, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| And points not understood | 6 | ····˘/ |
| In open treaty. Rise above | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Quibbles and shuffling off and on: | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Here's friendship for you if you like; but love,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| No, thank you, John. | 4 | ···· |
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.