Life the Beloved
As thy friend's face, with shadow of soul o'erspread,Somewhile unto thy sight perchance hath beenGhastly and strange, yet never so is seenIn thought, but to all fortunate favour wed;As thy love's death-bound features never deadTo memory's glass return, but contraveneFrail fugitive days, and always keep, I weenThan all new life a livelier lovelihead:--
So Life herself, thy spirit's friend and love,Even still as Spring's authentic harbingerGlows with fresh hours for hope to glorify;Though pale she lay when in the winter groveHer funeral flowers were snow-flakes shed on herAnd the red wings of frost-fire rent the sky.
Words in this poem
- somewhile adv.
- Once; for a time.
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- contravene v. t.
- To meet in the way of opposition; to come into conflict with; to oppose; to contradict; to obstruct the operation of; to defeat. [LL. contravenire; L. contra + venire to come: cf. F. contrevenir. See Come.]
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- glorify v. t.
- To make glorious by bestowing glory upon; to confer honor and distinction upon; to elevate to power or happiness, or to celestial glory. [F. glorifier, L. glorificare; gloria glory + - ficare (in comp.) to make. See -fy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Life the Beloved 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 the Beloved, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/life-the-beloved.html, id L21011.
Form and metre
Life the Beloved is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 A-BAABBA o'erspreadA · been · seenB · wedA · deadA · contraveneB · weenB · loveliheadA
- 2 --A--A love · harbinger · glorifyA · grove · her · skyA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As thy friend's face, with shadow of soul o'erspread, | 11 | ·····/····· |
| Somewhile unto thy sight perchance hath been | 10 | /˘····˘/·· |
| Ghastly and strange, yet never so is seen | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| In thought, but to all fortunate favour wed; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| As thy love's death-bound features never dead | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To memory's glass return, but contravene | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Frail fugitive days, and always keep, I ween | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Than all new life a livelier lovelihead:-- | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| So Life herself, thy spirit's friend and love, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Even still as Spring's authentic harbinger | 11 | /˘···˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Glows with fresh hours for hope to glorify; | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Though pale she lay when in the winter grove | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Her funeral flowers were snow-flakes shed on her | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| And the red wings of frost-fire rent the sky. | 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.