Song
When I am dead, my dearest,Sing no sad songs for me;Plant thou no roses at my head,Nor shady cypress tree:Be the green grass above meWith showers and dewdrops wet;And if thou wilt, remember,And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,I shall not feel the rain;I shall not hear the nightingaleSing on, as if in pain:And dreaming through the twilightThat doth not rise nor set,Haply I may remember,And haply may forget.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song 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, Song, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/song-3.html, id L18528.
Form and metre
Song is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -A-AAB-B dearest · meA · head · treeA · meA · wetB · remember · forgetB
- 2 -A-A-B-B shadows · rainA · nightingale · painA · twilight · setB · remember · forgetB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When I am dead, my dearest, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Sing no sad songs for me; | 6 | ······ |
| Plant thou no roses at my head, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor shady cypress tree: | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Be the green grass above me | 7 | ······· |
| With showers and dewdrops wet; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And if thou wilt, remember, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| And if thou wilt, forget. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I shall not see the shadows, | 7 | ·····/· |
| I shall not feel the rain; | 6 | ······ |
| I shall not hear the nightingale | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Sing on, as if in pain: | 6 | ······ |
| And dreaming through the twilight | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| That doth not rise nor set, | 6 | ······ |
| Haply I may remember, | 7 | /˘··˘/˘ |
| And haply may forget. | 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.