Michelangelo's Kiss
Great Michelangelo, with age grown bleakAnd uttermost labours, having once o'ersaidAll grievous memories on his long life shed,This worst regret to one true heart could speak:--That when, with sorrowing love and reverence meek,He stooped o'er sweet Colonna's dying bed,His Muse and dominant Lady, spirit-wed,Her hand he kissed, but not her brow or cheek.
O Buonarruoti,--good at Art's fire-wheelsTo urge her chariot!--even thus the Soul,Touching at length some sorely-chastened goal,Earns oftenest but a little: her appealsWere deep and mute,--lowly her claim. Let be:What holds for her Death's garner? And for thee?
Words in this poem
- uttermost a.
- Extreme; utmost; being; in the farthest, greatest, or highest degree; as, the uttermost extent or end. [From Utter, a.; cf. Utmost, and Outermost.]
- garner n.
- A granary; a building or place where grain is stored for preservation. [OE. garner, gerner, greiner, OF. gernier, grenier, F. grenier, fr. L. granarium, fr. granum. See 1st Grain, and cf. Granary.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Michelangelo's Kiss 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, Michelangelo's Kiss, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/michelangelo-s-kiss.html, id L21009.
Form and metre
Michelangelo's Kiss 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 ABBAABBA bleakA · o'ersaidB · shedB · speakA · meekA · bedB · wedB · cheekA
- 2 ABBACC wheelsA · soulB · goalB · appealsA · beC · theeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Great Michelangelo, with age grown bleak | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And uttermost labours, having once o'ersaid | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘··· |
| All grievous memories on his long life shed, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| This worst regret to one true heart could speak:-- | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| That when, with sorrowing love and reverence meek, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| He stooped o'er sweet Colonna's dying bed, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| His Muse and dominant Lady, spirit-wed, | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/· |
| Her hand he kissed, but not her brow or cheek. | 10 | ·········· |
| O Buonarruoti,--good at Art's fire-wheels | 10 | ········/· |
| To urge her chariot!--even thus the Soul, | 10 | ···/˘˘/··· |
| Touching at length some sorely-chastened goal, | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Earns oftenest but a little: her appeals | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Were deep and mute,--lowly her claim. Let be: | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| What holds for her Death's garner? And for thee? | 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.