The Love-Moon
'When that dead face, bowered in the furthest years,Which once was all the life years held for thee,Can now scarce bide the tides of memoryCast on thy soul a little spray of tears,--How canst thou gaze into these eyes of hersWhom now thy heart delights in, and not seeWithin each orb Love's philtred euphrasyMake them of buried troth remembrancers?'
'Nay, pitiful Love, nay, loving Pity! WellThou knowest that in these twain I have confess'dTwo very voices of thy summoning bell.Nay, Master, shall not Death make manifestIn these the culminant changes which approveThe love-moon that must light my soul to Love?'
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- euphrasy n.
- The plant eyesight (euphrasia officionalis), formerly regarded as beneficial in disorders of the eyes. [NL. euphrasia, fr. Gr. eufrasia, F. eufrasie.]
- troth n.
- Belief; faith; fidelity. [A variant of truth. See Truth.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- 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,]
- culminant a.
- Being vertical, or at the highest point of altitude; hence, predominant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Love-Moon 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-Moon, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-love-moon.html, id L20957.
Form and metre
The Love-Moon 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 AB-A-BBA yearsA · theeB · memory · tearsA · hers · seeB · euphrasyB · remembrancersA
- 2 ABABCC wellA · confess'dB · bellA · manifestB · approveC · loveC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'When that dead face, bowered in the furthest years, | 10 | ····/··/˘· |
| Which once was all the life years held for thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| Can now scarce bide the tides of memory | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Cast on thy soul a little spray of tears,-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| How canst thou gaze into these eyes of hers | 10 | ·········· |
| Whom now thy heart delights in, and not see | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Within each orb Love's philtred euphrasy | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Make them of buried troth remembrancers?' | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| 'Nay, pitiful Love, nay, loving Pity! Well | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Thou knowest that in these twain I have confess'd | 11 | ·/˘······˘/ |
| Two very voices of thy summoning bell. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Nay, Master, shall not Death make manifest | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| In these the culminant changes which approve | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| The love-moon that must light my soul to Love?' | 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.