Redemption
O Thou who at Love's hour ecstaticallyUnto my lips dost evermore presentThe body and blood of Love in sacrament;Whom I have neared and felt thy breath to beThe inmost incense of his sanctuary;Who without speech hast owned him, and intentUpon his will, thy life with mine hast blent,And murmured o'er the cup, Remember me!--
O what from thee the grace, for me the prize,And what to Love the glory,--when the wholeOf the deep stair thou tread'st to the dim shoalAnd weary water of the place of sighs,And there dost work deliverance, as thine eyesDraw up my prisoned spirit to thy soul!
Words in this poem
- ecstatically adv.
- Rapturously; ravishingly.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- sacrament n.
- The oath of allegiance taken by Roman soldiers; hence, a sacred ceremony used to impress an obligation; a solemn oath-taking; an oath. [L. sacramentum an oath, a sacred thing, a mystery, a sacrament, fr. sacrare to declare as sacred, sacer sacred: cf. F. sacrament. See Sacred.]
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Redemption 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, Redemption, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/redemption.html, id L20922.
Form and metre
Redemption 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 -AAB-AAB ecstatically · presentA · sacramentA · beB · sanctuary · intentA · blentA · meB
- 2 ABBAAB prizeA · wholeB · shoalB · sighsA · eyesA · soulB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O Thou who at Love's hour ecstatically | 11 | ·····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Unto my lips dost evermore present | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The body and blood of Love in sacrament; | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘˘ |
| Whom I have neared and felt thy breath to be | 10 | ·········· |
| The inmost incense of his sanctuary; | 11 | ·/˘/···/˘·˘ |
| Who without speech hast owned him, and intent | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Upon his will, thy life with mine hast blent, | 10 | ·········· |
| And murmured o'er the cup, Remember me!-- | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| O what from thee the grace, for me the prize, | 10 | ·········· |
| And what to Love the glory,--when the whole | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of the deep stair thou tread'st to the dim shoal | 10 | ·········· |
| And weary water of the place of sighs, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And there dost work deliverance, as thine eyes | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Draw up my prisoned spirit to thy soul! | 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.