Love Enthroned
I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair:--Truth, with awed lips; and Hope, with eyes upcast;And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen PastTo signal-fires, Oblivion's flight to scare;And Youth, with still some single golden hairUnto his shoulder clinging, since the lastEmbrace wherein two sweet arms held him fast;And Life, still wreathing flowers for Death to wear.
Love's throne was not with these; but far aboveAll passionate wind of welcome and farewellHe sat in breathless bowers they dream not of;Though Truth foreknow Love's heart, and Hope foretell,And Fame be for Love's sake desirable,And Youth be dear, and Life be sweet to Love.
Words in this poem
- upcast v. t.
- To cast or throw up; to turn upward.
- ashen a.
- Of or pertaining to the ash tree. [See Ash, the tree.]
- scare v. t.
- To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm. [OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar, prevent, skirrask to shun , shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre, adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer ]
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
- foreknow v. t.
- To have previous knowledge of; to know beforehand.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love Enthroned 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, Love Enthroned, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/love-enthroned.html, id L20920.
Form and metre
Love Enthroned is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: fall / simplicity, enthral / thereby, be / shrine, sanctuary / sign, scoff'd / scope and 21 more.
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 fairA · upcastB · pastB · scareA · hairA · lastB · fastB · wearA
- 2 ABABBA aboveA · farewellB · ofA · foretellB · desirableB · loveA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair:-- | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Truth, with awed lips; and Hope, with eyes upcast; | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen Past | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To signal-fires, Oblivion's flight to scare; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And Youth, with still some single golden hair | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Unto his shoulder clinging, since the last | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Embrace wherein two sweet arms held him fast; | 10 | ˘/········ |
| And Life, still wreathing flowers for Death to wear. | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Love's throne was not with these; but far above | 10 | ·········· |
| All passionate wind of welcome and farewell | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··/ |
| He sat in breathless bowers they dream not of; | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Though Truth foreknow Love's heart, and Hope foretell, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| And Fame be for Love's sake desirable, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| And Youth be dear, and Life be sweet to Love. | 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.