Heart's Hope
By what word's power, the key of paths untrod,Shall I the difficult deeps of Love explore,Till parted waves of Song yield up the shoreEven as that sea which Israel crossed dry-shod?For lo! in some poor rhythmic period,Lady, I fain would tell how evermoreThy soul I know not from thy body, norThee from myself, neither our love from God.
Yea, in God's name, and Love's, and thine, would IDraw from one loving heart such evidenceAs to all hearts all things shall signify;Tender as dawn's first hill-fire, and intenseAs instantaneous penetrating sense,In Spring's birth-hour, of other Springs gone by.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- explore v. t.
- To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]
- rhythmic a.
- Pertaining to, or of the nature of, rhythm DAy and night I worked my rhythmic thought. Mrs. Browning. [Gr. rhythmicus, F. rhythmique.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Heart's Hope 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, Heart's Hope, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/heart-s-hope.html, id L20924.
Form and metre
Heart's Hope 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 untrodA · exploreB · shoreB · shodA · periodA · evermoreB · norB · godA
- 2 ABABBA iA · evidenceB · signifyA · intenseB · senseB · byA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| By what word's power, the key of paths untrod, | 10 | ···/······ |
| Shall I the difficult deeps of Love explore, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Till parted waves of Song yield up the shore | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Even as that sea which Israel crossed dry-shod? | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| For lo! in some poor rhythmic period, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Lady, I fain would tell how evermore | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Thy soul I know not from thy body, nor | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thee from myself, neither our love from God. | 10 | ···//˘/··· |
| Yea, in God's name, and Love's, and thine, would I | 10 | ·········· |
| Draw from one loving heart such evidence | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| As to all hearts all things shall signify; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Tender as dawn's first hill-fire, and intense | 10 | /˘····/·˘/ |
| As instantaneous penetrating sense, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘· |
| In Spring's birth-hour, of other Springs gone by. | 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.