Wife to Husband
Pardon the faults in me,For the love of years ago:Good-bye.I must drift across the sea,I must sink into the snow,I must die.
You can bask in this sun,You can drink wine, and eat:Good-bye.I must gird myself and run,Though with unready feet:I must die.
Blank sea to sail upon,Cold bed to sleep in:Good-bye.While you clasp, I must be goneFor all your weeping:I must die.
A kiss for one friend,And a word for two,--Good-bye:--A lock that you must send,A kindness you must do:I must die.
Not a word for you,Not a lock or kiss,Good-bye.We, one, must part in two;Verily death is this:I must die.
Words in this poem
- bask v. i.
- To lie in warmth; to be exposed to genial heat. [OScand. ba to bathe one's self, or perh. bakask to bake one's self, sk being reflexive. See Bath, n., Bake, v. t.]
- unready v. t.
- To undress. Sir P. Sidney. [1st pref. un- + ready.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wife to Husband 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, Wife to Husband, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/wife-to-husband.html, id L04264.
Form and metre
Wife to Husband is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABCABC, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABCABC meA · agoB · byeC · seaA · snowB · dieC
- 2 ABCABC sunA · eatB · byeC · runA · feetB · dieC
- 3 AABA-B uponA · inA · byeB · goneA · weeping · dieB
- 4 ABCABC friendA · twoB · byeC · sendA · doB · dieC
- 5 ABCABC youA · kissB · byeC · twoA · thisB · dieC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pardon the faults in me, | 6 | /˘···· |
| For the love of years ago: | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Good-bye. | 2 | ·· |
| I must drift across the sea, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| I must sink into the snow, | 7 | ······· |
| I must die. | 3 | ··· |
| You can bask in this sun, | 6 | ······ |
| You can drink wine, and eat: | 6 | ······ |
| Good-bye. | 2 | ·· |
| I must gird myself and run, | 7 | ····/·· |
| Though with unready feet: | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| I must die. | 3 | ··· |
| Blank sea to sail upon, | 6 | ······ |
| Cold bed to sleep in: | 5 | ····· |
| Good-bye. | 2 | ·· |
| While you clasp, I must be gone | 7 | ······· |
| For all your weeping: | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I must die. | 3 | ··· |
| A kiss for one friend, | 5 | ····· |
| And a word for two,-- | 5 | ····· |
| Good-bye:-- | 2 | ·· |
| A lock that you must send, | 6 | ······ |
| A kindness you must do: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I must die. | 3 | ··· |
| Not a word for you, | 5 | ····· |
| Not a lock or kiss, | 5 | ····· |
| Good-bye. | 2 | ·· |
| We, one, must part in two; | 6 | ······ |
| Verily death is this: | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| I must die. | 3 | ··· |
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.