Song
Two doves upon the selfsame branch,Two lilies on a single stem,Two butterflies upon one flower:--Oh happy they who look on them.
Who look upon them hand in handFlushed in the rosy summer light;Who look upon them hand in handAnd never give a thought to night.
Words in this poem
- selfsame a.
- Precisely the same; the very same; identical. [Self, a. + same.]
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.html, id L04253.
Form and metre
Song is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 1 line ends 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 -A-A branch · stemA · flower · themA
- 2 ABAB handA · lightB · handA · nightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two doves upon the selfsame branch, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Two lilies on a single stem, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Two butterflies upon one flower:-- | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Oh happy they who look on them. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who look upon them hand in hand | 8 | ········ |
| Flushed in the rosy summer light; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Who look upon them hand in hand | 8 | ········ |
| And never give a thought to night. | 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.