Not as These
'I am not as these are,' the poet saithIn youth's pride, and the painter, among menAt bay, where never pencil comes nor pen,And shut about with his own frozen breath.To others, for whom only rhyme wins faithAs poets,--only paint as painters,--thenHe turns in the cold silence; and againShrinking, 'I am not as these are,' he saith.
And say that this is so, what follows it?For were thine eyes set backwards in thine head,Such words were well; but they see on, and far.Unto the lights of the great Past, new-litFair for the Future's track, look thou instead,--Say thou instead 'I am not as these are.'
Words in this poem
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Not as These 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, Not as These, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/not-as-these.html, id L20991.
Form and metre
Not as These 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 ABBAABBA saithA · menB · penB · breathA · faithA · thenB · againB · saithA
- 2 ABCABC itA · headB · farC · litA · insteadB · areC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'I am not as these are,' the poet saith | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In youth's pride, and the painter, among men | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| At bay, where never pencil comes nor pen, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And shut about with his own frozen breath. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To others, for whom only rhyme wins faith | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| As poets,--only paint as painters,--then | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| He turns in the cold silence; and again | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Shrinking, 'I am not as these are,' he saith. | 10 | /˘········ |
| And say that this is so, what follows it? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For were thine eyes set backwards in thine head, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Such words were well; but they see on, and far. | 10 | ·········· |
| Unto the lights of the great Past, new-lit | 10 | ·········· |
| Fair for the Future's track, look thou instead,-- | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Say thou instead 'I am not as these are.' | 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.