Love's Lovers
Some ladies love the jewels in Love's zoneAnd gold-tipped darts he hath for painless playIn idle scornful hours he flings away;And some that listen to his lure's soft toneDo love to deem the silver praise their own;Some prize his blindfold sight; and there be theyWho kissed his wings which brought him yesterdayAnd thank his wings to-day that he is flown.
My lady only loves the heart of Love:Therefore Love's heart, my lady, hath for theeHis bower of unimagined flower and tree:There kneels he now, and all-anhungered ofThine eyes grey-lit in shadowing hair above,Seals with thy mouth his immortality.
Words in this poem
- painless a.
- Free from pain; without pain.
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
- blindfold v. t.
- To cover the eyes of, as with a bandage; to hinder from seeing. [OE. blindfolden, blindfelden, blindfellen; AS. blind blind + prob. fellan, fyllan, to fell, strike down.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- shadowing n.
- Shade, or gradation of light and color; shading. Feltham.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Lovers 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 Lovers, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/love-s-lovers.html, id L20928.
Form and metre
Love's Lovers is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 zoneA · playB · awayB · toneA · ownA · theyB · yesterdayB · flownA
- 2 ABBAA- loveA · theeB · treeB · ofA · aboveA · immortality
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some ladies love the jewels in Love's zone | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And gold-tipped darts he hath for painless play | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In idle scornful hours he flings away; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/··˘/ |
| And some that listen to his lure's soft tone | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Do love to deem the silver praise their own; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Some prize his blindfold sight; and there be they | 10 | ···/······ |
| Who kissed his wings which brought him yesterday | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And thank his wings to-day that he is flown. | 10 | ·········· |
| My lady only loves the heart of Love: | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Therefore Love's heart, my lady, hath for thee | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His bower of unimagined flower and tree: | 10 | ·/··˘/˘/·· |
| There kneels he now, and all-anhungered of | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Thine eyes grey-lit in shadowing hair above, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Seals with thy mouth his immortality. | 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.