A Day of Love
Those envied places which do know her well,And are so scornful of this lonely place,Even now for once are emptied of her grace:Nowhere but here she is: and while Love's spellFrom his predominant presence doth compelAll alien hours, an outworn populace,The hours of Love fill full the echoing spaceWith sweet confederate music favourable.
Now many memories make solicitousThe delicate love-lines of her mouth, till, litWith quivering fire, the words take wing from it;As here between our kisses we sit thusSpeaking of things remembered, and so sitSpeechless while things forgotten call to us.
Words in this poem
- nowhere adv.
- Not anywhere; not in any place or state; as, the book is nowhere to be found. [AS. nahwær. See No, and Where.]
- speechless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Day of Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from The House of Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #3692; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, A Day of Love, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/a-day-of-love.html, id L20936.
Form and metre
A Day of Love is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABB- wellA · placeB · graceB · spellA · compelA · populaceB · spaceB · favourable
- 2 ABBABA solicitousA · litB · itB · thusA · sitB · usA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Those envied places which do know her well, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And are so scornful of this lonely place, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Even now for once are emptied of her grace: | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| Nowhere but here she is: and while Love's spell | 10 | /········· |
| From his predominant presence doth compel | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| All alien hours, an outworn populace, | 11 | ·/˘˘/···/˘˘ |
| The hours of Love fill full the echoing space | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| With sweet confederate music favourable. | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘···· |
| Now many memories make solicitous | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The delicate love-lines of her mouth, till, lit | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| With quivering fire, the words take wing from it; | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| As here between our kisses we sit thus | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| Speaking of things remembered, and so sit | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| Speechless while things forgotten call to us. | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
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.