Lovesight
When do I see thee most, beloved one?When in the light the spirits of mine eyesBefore thy face, their altar, solemnizeThe worship of that Love through thee made known?Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone,)Close-kissed and eloquent of still repliesThy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,And my soul only sees thy soul its own?
O love, my love! if I no more should seeThyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,--How then should sound upon Life's darkening slopeThe ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,The wind of Death's imperishable wing?
Words in this poem
- solemnize v. t.
- To perform with solemn or ritual ceremonies, or according to legal forms. [Cf. F. solemniser, sollemniser.]
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lovesight 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, Lovesight, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/lovesight.html, id L20923.
Form and metre
Lovesight is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 -AABBAAB one · eyesA · solemnizeA · knownB · aloneB · repliesA · liesA · ownB
- 2 AABCCB seeA · theeA · springB · slopeC · hopeC · wingB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When do I see thee most, beloved one? | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| When in the light the spirits of mine eyes | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Before thy face, their altar, solemnize | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| The worship of that Love through thee made known? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone,) | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies, | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘/˘· |
| And my soul only sees thy soul its own? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| O love, my love! if I no more should see | 10 | ·········· |
| Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee, | 11 | ˘/·····/··· |
| Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,-- | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| How then should sound upon Life's darkening slope | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The wind of Death's imperishable wing? | 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.