Severed Selves
Two separate divided silences,Which, brought together, would find loving voice;Two glances which together would rejoiceIn love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees;Two hands apart whose touch alone gives ease;Two bosoms which, heart-shrined with mutual flame,Would, meeting in one clasp, be made the same;Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas:--
Such are we now. Ah! may our hope forecastIndeed one hour again, when on this streamOf darkened love once more the light shall gleam?An hour how slow to come, how quickly past,Which blooms and fades, and only leaves at last,Faint as shed flowers, the attenuated dream.
Words in this poem
- forecast v. t.
- To plan beforehand; to scheme; to project.
- 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,]
- attenuated a.
- Made thin or slender. [L. attenuatus, p. p.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Severed Selves 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, Severed Selves, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/severed-selves.html, id L20960.
Form and metre
Severed Selves is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBAACCA silencesA · voiceB · rejoiceB · treesA · easeA · flameC · sameC · seasA
- 2 ABBAAB forecastA · streamB · gleamB · pastA · lastA · dreamB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two separate divided silences, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Which, brought together, would find loving voice; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Two glances which together would rejoice | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| In love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees; | 10 | ·········· |
| Two hands apart whose touch alone gives ease; | 10 | ··˘/··˘/·· |
| Two bosoms which, heart-shrined with mutual flame, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Would, meeting in one clasp, be made the same; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas:-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Such are we now. Ah! may our hope forecast | 10 | ······/·/· |
| Indeed one hour again, when on this stream | 10 | ˘/·/˘/···· |
| Of darkened love once more the light shall gleam? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| An hour how slow to come, how quickly past, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Which blooms and fades, and only leaves at last, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Faint as shed flowers, the attenuated dream. | 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.