The Kiss
What smouldering senses in death's sick delayOr seizure of malign vicissitudeCan rob this body of honour, or denudeThis soul of wedding-raiment worn to-day?For lo! even now my lady's lips did playWith these my lips such consonant interludeAs laurelled Orpheus longed for when he wooedThe half-drawn hungering face with that last lay.
I was a child beneath her touch,--a manWhen breast to breast we clung, even I and she,--A spirit when her spirit looked through me,--A god when all our life-breath met to fanOur life-blood, till love's emulous ardours ran,Fire within fire, desire in deity.*
Words in this poem
- smouldering a.
- Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
- vicissitude n.
- Regular change or succession from one thing to another; alternation; mutual succession; interchange. [L. vicissitudo, fr. vicis change, turn: cf. F. vicissitude. See Vicarious.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- denude v. t.
- To divest of all covering; to make bare or naked; to strip; to divest; as, to denude one of clothing, or lands. [L. denudare; de- + nudare to make naked or bare, nudus naked. See Nude.]
- orpheus n.
- The famous mythic Thracian poet, son of the Muse Calliope, and husband of Eurydice. He is reputed to have had power to entrance beasts and inanimate objects by the music of his lyre.
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Kiss 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 Kiss, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-kiss.html, id L20925.
Form and metre
The Kiss is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 ABBAABBA delayA · vicissitudeB · denudeB · dayA · playA · interludeB · wooedB · layA
- 2 ABBAA- manA · sheB · meB · fanA · ranA · deity
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What smouldering senses in death's sick delay | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| Or seizure of malign vicissitude | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘˘ |
| Can rob this body of honour, or denude | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| This soul of wedding-raiment worn to-day? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| For lo! even now my lady's lips did play | 10 | ··/··/˘··· |
| With these my lips such consonant interlude | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| As laurelled Orpheus longed for when he wooed | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The half-drawn hungering face with that last lay. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I was a child beneath her touch,--a man | 10 | ·········· |
| When breast to breast we clung, even I and she,-- | 10 | ······/··· |
| A spirit when her spirit looked through me,-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A god when all our life-breath met to fan | 10 | ····/····· |
| Our life-blood, till love's emulous ardours ran, | 11 | /····/˘˘/˘· |
| Fire within fire, desire in deity.* | 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.