Stillborn Love
The hour which might have been yet might not be,Which man's and woman's heart conceived and boreYet whereof life was barren,--on what shoreBides it the breaking of Time's weary sea?Bondchild of all consummate joys set free,It somewhere sighs and serves, and mute beforeThe house of Love, hears through the echoing doorHis hours elect in choral consonancy.
But lo! what wedded souls now hand in handTogether tread at last the immortal strandWith eyes where burning memory lights love home?Lo! how the little outcast hour has turnedAnd leaped to them and in their faces yearned:--'I am your child: O parents, ye have come!'
Words in this poem
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- choral a.
- Of or pertaining to a choir or chorus; singing, sung, or adapted to be sung, in chorus or harmony. Choral service, a service of song. [LL. choralis, fr. L. chorus. See Chorus.]
- consonancy n.
- Accord or agreement of sounds produced simultaneously, as a note with its third, fifth, and eighth. [L. consonantia: cf. F. consonnance.]
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stillborn 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, Stillborn Love, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/stillborn-love.html, id L20972.
Form and metre
Stillborn Love is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABBAABB- beA · boreB · shoreB · seaA · freeA · beforeB · doorB · consonancy
- 2 AABCCB handA · strandA · homeB · turnedC · yearnedC · comeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The hour which might have been yet might not be, | 10 | ·/········ |
| Which man's and woman's heart conceived and bore | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Yet whereof life was barren,--on what shore | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Bides it the breaking of Time's weary sea? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Bondchild of all consummate joys set free, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| It somewhere sighs and serves, and mute before | 10 | ·/········ |
| The house of Love, hears through the echoing door | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| His hours elect in choral consonancy. | 11 | ·/˘/·/˘···· |
| But lo! what wedded souls now hand in hand | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Together tread at last the immortal strand | 11 | ˘/˘····˘/˘· |
| With eyes where burning memory lights love home? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Lo! how the little outcast hour has turned | 10 | ···/˘/·/·· |
| And leaped to them and in their faces yearned:-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| 'I am your child: O parents, ye have come!' | 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.