The Love-Letter
Warmed by her hand and shadowed by her hairAs close she leaned and poured her heart through thee,Whereof the articulate throbs accompanyThe smooth black stream that makes thy whiteness fair,--Sweet fluttering sheet, even of her breath aware,--Oh let thy silent song disclose to meThat soul wherewith her lips and eyes agreeLike married music in Love's answering air.
Fain had I watched her when, at some fond thought,Her bosom to the writing closelier press'd,And her breast's secrets peered into her breast;When, through eyes raised an instant, her soul soughtMy soul, and from the sudden confluence caughtThe words that made her love the loveliest.
Words in this poem
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- confluence n.
- The act of flowing together; the meeting or junction of two or more streams; the place of meeting.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Love-Letter 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 Love-Letter, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-love-letter.html, id L20931.
Form and metre
The Love-Letter is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 AB-AABBA hairA · theeB · accompany · fairA · awareA · meB · agreeB · airA
- 2 ABBAAB thoughtA · press'dB · breastB · soughtA · caughtA · loveliestB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Warmed by her hand and shadowed by her hair | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As close she leaned and poured her heart through thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| Whereof the articulate throbs accompany | 11 | ···˘/˘˘·˘/˘ |
| The smooth black stream that makes thy whiteness fair,-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sweet fluttering sheet, even of her breath aware,-- | 10 | ·/˘·/···˘/ |
| Oh let thy silent song disclose to me | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| That soul wherewith her lips and eyes agree | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Like married music in Love's answering air. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Fain had I watched her when, at some fond thought, | 10 | ·········· |
| Her bosom to the writing closelier press'd, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| And her breast's secrets peered into her breast; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When, through eyes raised an instant, her soul sought | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| My soul, and from the sudden confluence caught | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The words that made her love the loveliest. | 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.