Her Gifts
High grace, the dower of queens; and therewithalSome wood-born wonder's sweet simplicity;A glance like water brimming with the skyOr hyacinth-light where forest-shadows fall;Such thrilling pallor of cheek as doth enthralThe heart; a mouth whose passionate forms implyAll music and all silence held thereby;Deep golden locks, her sovereign coronal;A round reared neck, meet column of Love's shrineTo cling to when the heart takes sanctuary;Hands which for ever at Love's bidding be,And soft-stirred feet still answering to his sign:--These are her gifts, as tongue may tell them o'er.Breathe low her name, my soul; for that means more.
Words in this poem
- therewithal adv.
- Over and above; besides; moreover. Daniel.
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
- pallor n.
- Paleness; want of color; pallidity; as, pallor of the complexion. Jer. Taylor. [L., fr. pallere to be or look pale. See Pale, a.]
- imply v. t.
- To infold or involve; to wrap up. [From the same source as employ. See Employ, Ply, and cf. Implicate, Apply.]
- coronal a.
- Of or pertaining to a corona (in any of the senses). [L. coronalis: cf. F. coronal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Her Gifts 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, Her Gifts, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/her-gifts.html, id L20951.
Form and metre
Her Gifts is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG therewithalA · simplicityB · skyA · fallB · enthralC · implyD · therebyC · coronalD · shrineE · sanctuaryF · beE · signF · o'erG · moreG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| High grace, the dower of queens; and therewithal | 11 | ··········· |
| Some wood-born wonder's sweet simplicity; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| A glance like water brimming with the sky | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Or hyacinth-light where forest-shadows fall; | 11 | ·/˘···/˘/·· |
| Such thrilling pallor of cheek as doth enthral | 11 | ·/˘/˘····˘/ |
| The heart; a mouth whose passionate forms imply | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| All music and all silence held thereby; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Deep golden locks, her sovereign coronal; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| A round reared neck, meet column of Love's shrine | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To cling to when the heart takes sanctuary; | 11 | ·······/˘·˘ |
| Hands which for ever at Love's bidding be, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And soft-stirred feet still answering to his sign:-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| These are her gifts, as tongue may tell them o'er. | 10 | ·········· |
| Breathe low her name, my soul; for that means more. | 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.