Broken Music
The mother will not turn, who thinks she hearsHer nursling's speech first grow articulate;But breathless with averted eyes elateShe sits, with open lips and open ears,That it may call her twice. 'Mid doubts and fearsThus oft my soul has hearkened; till the song,A central moan for days, at length found tongue,And the sweet music welled and the sweet tears.
But now, whatever while the soul is fainTo list that wonted murmur, as it wereThe speech-bound sea-shell's low importunate strain,--No breath of song, thy voice alone is there,O bitterly beloved! and all her gainIs but the pang of unpermitted prayer.
Words in this poem
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
- averted a.
- Turned away, esp. as an expression of feeling; also, offended; unpropitious.
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- bitterly adv.
- In a bitter manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Broken Music 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, Broken Music, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/broken-music.html, id L20967.
Form and metre
Broken Music is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBAA--A hearsA · articulateB · elateB · earsA · fearsA · song · tongue · tearsA
- 2 A-ABAB fainA · were · strainA · thereB · gainA · prayerB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The mother will not turn, who thinks she hears | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Her nursling's speech first grow articulate; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| But breathless with averted eyes elate | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| She sits, with open lips and open ears, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That it may call her twice. 'Mid doubts and fears | 10 | ·········· |
| Thus oft my soul has hearkened; till the song, | 10 | ·········· |
| A central moan for days, at length found tongue, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And the sweet music welled and the sweet tears. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But now, whatever while the soul is fain | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To list that wonted murmur, as it were | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The speech-bound sea-shell's low importunate strain,-- | 11 | ······˘/˘˘· |
| No breath of song, thy voice alone is there, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| O bitterly beloved! and all her gain | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/···· |
| Is but the pang of unpermitted prayer. | 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.