Newborn Death I
To-day Death seems to me an infant childWhich her worn mother Life upon my kneeHas set to grow my friend and play with me;If haply so my heart might be beguil'dTo find no terrors in a face so mild,--If haply so my weary heart might beUnto the newborn milky eyes of thee,O Death, before resentment reconcil'd.
How long, O Death? And shall thy feet departStill a young child's with mine, or wilt thou standFullgrown the helpful daughter of my heart,What time with thee indeed I reach the strandOf the pale wave which knows thee what thou art,And drink it in the hollow of thy hand?
Words in this poem
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Newborn Death I 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, Newborn Death I, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/newborn-death-i.html, id L21014.
Form and metre
Newborn Death I 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 childA · kneeB · meB · beguil'dA · mildA · beB · theeB · reconcil'dA
- 2 ABABAB departA · standB · heartA · strandB · artA · handB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To-day Death seems to me an infant child | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Which her worn mother Life upon my knee | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Has set to grow my friend and play with me; | 10 | ·········· |
| If haply so my heart might be beguil'd | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| To find no terrors in a face so mild,-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If haply so my weary heart might be | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Unto the newborn milky eyes of thee, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| O Death, before resentment reconcil'd. | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| How long, O Death? And shall thy feet depart | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Still a young child's with mine, or wilt thou stand | 10 | ·········· |
| Fullgrown the helpful daughter of my heart, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| What time with thee indeed I reach the strand | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Of the pale wave which knows thee what thou art, | 10 | ·········· |
| And drink it in the hollow of thy hand? | 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.