Body's Beauty
Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,And her enchanted hair was the first gold.And still she sits, young while the earth is old,And, subtly of herself contemplative,Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flowers; for whereIs he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scentAnd soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so wentThy spell through him, and left his straight neck bentAnd round his heart one strangling golden hair.
Words in this poem
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- subtly adv.
- In a subtle manner; slyly; artfully; cunningly.
- 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,]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Body's Beauty 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, Body's Beauty, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/body-s-beauty.html, id L20994.
Form and metre
Body's Beauty is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 ABBAABBA toldA · eveB · deceiveB · goldA · oldA · contemplativeB · weaveB · holdA
- 2 ABABBA whereA · scentB · snareA · wentB · bentB · hairA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) | 10 | ·········· |
| That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And her enchanted hair was the first gold. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And still she sits, young while the earth is old, | 10 | ·········· |
| And, subtly of herself contemplative, | 11 | ·/˘˘·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, | 10 | ·········· |
| Till heart and body and life are in its hold. | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went | 10 | ·········· |
| Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent | 10 | ·········· |
| And round his heart one strangling golden hair. | 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.