Parted Love
What shall be said of this embattled dayAnd armed occupation of this nightBy all thy foes beleaguered,--now when sightNor sound denotes the loved one far away?Of these thy vanquished hours what shalt thou say,--As every sense to which she dealt delightNow labours lonely o'er the stark noon-heightTo reach the sunset's desolate disarray?
Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory's artParades the Past before thy face, and luresThy spirit to her passionate portraitures:Till the tempestuous tide-gates flung apartFlood with wild will the hollows of thy heart,And thy heart rends thee, and thy body endures.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- embattled a.
- Having indentations like a battlement.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- disarray v. t.
- To throw into disorder; to break the array of. [Pref. dis- + array, v.: cf. OF. desarroyer, desarreier.]
- fettered a.
- Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Parted Love 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, Parted Love, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/parted-love.html, id L20966.
Form and metre
Parted Love 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 dayA · nightB · sightB · awayA · sayA · delightB · heightB · disarrayA
- 2 AB-AAB artA · luresB · portraitures · apartA · heartA · enduresB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What shall be said of this embattled day | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And armed occupation of this night | 10 | ··˘·˘/˘··· |
| By all thy foes beleaguered,--now when sight | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Nor sound denotes the loved one far away? | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Of these thy vanquished hours what shalt thou say,-- | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| As every sense to which she dealt delight | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Now labours lonely o'er the stark noon-height | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| To reach the sunset's desolate disarray? | 10 | ···/·/˘·˘/ |
| Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory's art | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Parades the Past before thy face, and lures | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Thy spirit to her passionate portraitures: | 10 | ·/··/˘˘··· |
| Till the tempestuous tide-gates flung apart | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Flood with wild will the hollows of thy heart, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And thy heart rends thee, and thy body endures. | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
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.