Love's Fatality
Sweet Love,--but oh! most dread Desire of LoveLife-thwarted. Linked in gyves I saw them stand,Love shackled with Vain-longing, hand to hand:And one was eyed as the blue vault above:But hope tempestuous like a fire-cloud hoveI' the other's gaze, even as in his whose wandVainly all night with spell-wrought power has spann'dThe unyielding caves of some deep treasure-trove.
Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame,Made moan: 'Alas O Love, thus leashed with me!Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free:And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame,Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name,Life's iron heart, even Love's Fatality.'
Words in this poem
- hove v. i.
- To rise; to swell; to heave; to cause to swell.
- writhen a.
- Having a twisted distorted from.
- fatality n.
- The state of being fatal, or proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity, superior to, and independent of, free and rational control. [L. fatalitas: cf. F. fatalité]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Fatality 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's Fatality, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/love-s-fatality.html, id L20971.
Form and metre
Love's Fatality is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 ABBAC-BC loveA · standB · handB · aboveA · hoveC · wand · spann'dB · troveC
- 2 ABBAA- flameA · meB · freeB · tameA · nameA · fatality
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet Love,--but oh! most dread Desire of Love | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Life-thwarted. Linked in gyves I saw them stand, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Love shackled with Vain-longing, hand to hand: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And one was eyed as the blue vault above: | 10 | ·········· |
| But hope tempestuous like a fire-cloud hove | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| I' the other's gaze, even as in his whose wand | 11 | ··/˘·/····· |
| Vainly all night with spell-wrought power has spann'd | 10 | /˘·····/·· |
| The unyielding caves of some deep treasure-trove. | 11 | ·˘/˘····/˘· |
| Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Made moan: 'Alas O Love, thus leashed with me! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Life's iron heart, even Love's Fatality.' | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
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.