Life-In-Love
Not in thy body is thy life at allBut in this lady's lips and hands and eyes;Through these she yields the life that vivifiesWhat else were sorrow's servant and death's thrall.Look on thyself without her, and recallThe waste remembrance and forlorn surmiseThat lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighsO'er vanished hours and hours eventual.
Even so much life hath the poor tress of hairWhich, stored apart, is all love hath to showFor heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago;Even so much life endures unknown, even where,'Mid change the changeless night environeth,Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.
Words in this poem
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- eventual a.
- Coming or happening as a consequence or result; consequential. [Cf. F. éventiel. See Event.]
- tress n.
- A braid, knot, or curl, of hair; a ringlet. [OE. tresse, OF. trece, F. tresse, LL. tricia, fr. Gr. tri`cha threefold, because a tress is usually formed by interlacing three pieces; akin to trei^s three. Se]
- changeless a.
- That can not be changed; constant; as, a changeless purpose.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Life-In-Love 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, Life-In-Love, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/life-in-love.html, id L20956.
Form and metre
Life-In-Love is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 allA · eyesB · vivifiesB · thrallA · recallA · surmiseB · sighsB · eventualA
- 2 ABBACC hairA · showB · agoB · whereA · environethC · deathC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not in thy body is thy life at all | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But in this lady's lips and hands and eyes; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Through these she yields the life that vivifies | 9 | ········· |
| What else were sorrow's servant and death's thrall. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Look on thyself without her, and recall | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| The waste remembrance and forlorn surmise | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| That lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighs | 10 | ·········· |
| O'er vanished hours and hours eventual. | 11 | ·/˘/·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair | 10 | /········· |
| Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| For heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago; | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| Even so much life endures unknown, even where, | 10 | /···˘/˘//· |
| 'Mid change the changeless night environeth, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death. | 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.