The Choice I
Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die.Surely the earth, that's wise being very old,Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and holdThy sultry hair up from my face that IMay pour for thee this yellow wine, brim-high,Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold.We'll drown all hours: thy song, while hours toil'd,Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky.
Now kiss, and think that there are really those,My own high-bosomed beauty, who increaseVain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our wayThrough many days they toil; then comes a dayThey die not,--never having lived,--but cease;And round their narrow lips the mould falls close.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- 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,]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Choice I 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 Choice I, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-choice-i.html, id L20988.
Form and metre
The Choice I is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABBAAB-A dieA · oldB · holdB · iA · highA · goldB · toil'd · skyA
- 2 ABCCBA thoseA · increaseB · wayC · dayC · ceaseB · closeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Surely the earth, that's wise being very old, | 10 | /˘····//˘· |
| Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold | 10 | ··/······· |
| Thy sultry hair up from my face that I | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| May pour for thee this yellow wine, brim-high, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| We'll drown all hours: thy song, while hours toil'd, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Now kiss, and think that there are really those, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My own high-bosomed beauty, who increase | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Vain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our way | 10 | ········/· |
| Through many days they toil; then comes a day | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| They die not,--never having lived,--but cease; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And round their narrow lips the mould falls close. | 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.