Last Fire
Love, through your spirit and mine what summer eveNow glows with glory of all things possess'd,Since this day's sun of rapture filled the westAnd the light sweetened as the fire took leave?Awhile now softlier let your bosom heave,As in Love's harbour, even that loving breast,All care takes refuge while we sink to rest,And mutual dreams the bygone bliss retrieve.
Many the days that Winter keeps in store,Sunless throughout, or whose brief sun-glimpsesScarce shed the heaped snow through the naked trees.This day at least was Summer's paramour,Sun-coloured to the imperishable coreWith sweet well-being of love and full heart's ease.
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- retrieve n.
- A seeking again; a discovery. B. Jonson.
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Last Fire 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, Last Fire, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/last-fire.html, id L20950.
Form and metre
Last Fire is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 eveA · possess'dB · westB · leaveA · heaveA · breastB · restB · retrieveA
- 2 ABB-AB storeA · glimpsesB · treesB · paramour · coreA · easeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love, through your spirit and mine what summer eve | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Now glows with glory of all things possess'd, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Since this day's sun of rapture filled the west | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And the light sweetened as the fire took leave? | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Awhile now softlier let your bosom heave, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| As in Love's harbour, even that loving breast, | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| All care takes refuge while we sink to rest, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And mutual dreams the bygone bliss retrieve. | 10 | ·/˘··/··˘/ |
| Many the days that Winter keeps in store, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Sunless throughout, or whose brief sun-glimpses | 10 | /˘······/˘ |
| Scarce shed the heaped snow through the naked trees. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| This day at least was Summer's paramour, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Sun-coloured to the imperishable core | 11 | ·/˘··˘/˘˘˘· |
| With sweet well-being of love and full heart's ease. | 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.