The Birth-Bond
Have you not noted, in some familyWhere two were born of a first marriage-bed,How still they own their gracious bond, though fedAnd nursed on the forgotten breast and knee?--How to their father's children they shall beIn act and thought of one goodwill; but eachShall for the other have, in silence speech,And in a word complete community?
Even so, when first I saw you, seemed it, love,That among souls allied to mine was yetOne nearer kindred than life hinted of.O born with me somewhere that men forget,And though in years of sight and sound unmet,Known for my soul's birth-partner well enough!
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,]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Birth-Bond 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, The Birth-Bond, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-birth-bond.html, id L20935.
Form and metre
The Birth-Bond is 14 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 -AABBCC- family · bedA · fedA · kneeB · beB · eachC · speechC · community
- 2 ABABB- loveA · yetB · ofA · forgetB · unmetB · enough
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Have you not noted, in some family | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Where two were born of a first marriage-bed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| How still they own their gracious bond, though fed | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And nursed on the forgotten breast and knee?-- | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| How to their father's children they shall be | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| In act and thought of one goodwill; but each | 10 | ······//·· |
| Shall for the other have, in silence speech, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And in a word complete community? | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Even so, when first I saw you, seemed it, love, | 10 | /········· |
| That among souls allied to mine was yet | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| One nearer kindred than life hinted of. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| O born with me somewhere that men forget, | 10 | ····/···˘/ |
| And though in years of sight and sound unmet, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Known for my soul's birth-partner well enough! | 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.