The One Hope
When all desire at last and all regretGo hand in hand to death, and all is vain,What shall assuage the unforgotten painAnd teach the unforgetful to forget?Shall Peace be still a sunk stream long unmet,--Or may the soul at once in a green plainStoop through the spray of some sweet life-fountainAnd cull the dew-drenched flowering amulet?
Ah! when the wan soul in that golden airBetween the scriptured petals softly blownPeers breathless for the gift of grace unknown,Ah! let none other written spell soe'erBut only the one Hope's one name be there,--Not less nor more, but even that word alone.
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,]
- cull v. t.
- To separate, select, or pick out; to choose and gather or collect; as, to cuil flowers. [OE., OF. cuillir, coillir, F.cueillir, to gather, pluck, pick, fr. L. colligere. See Coil, v. t., and cf. Collect.]
- breathless a.
- Spent with labor or violent action; out of breath.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The One Hope 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 One Hope, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-one-hope.html, id L21016.
Form and metre
The One Hope is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 regretA · vainB · painB · forgetA · unmetA · plainB · fountainB · amuletA
- 2 ABB-AB airA · blownB · unknownB · soe'er · thereA · aloneB
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 all desire at last and all regret | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain, | 10 | ·········· |
| What shall assuage the unforgotten pain | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And teach the unforgetful to forget? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Shall Peace be still a sunk stream long unmet,-- | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Or may the soul at once in a green plain | 10 | ·········· |
| Stoop through the spray of some sweet life-fountain | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And cull the dew-drenched flowering amulet? | 11 | ·····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Ah! when the wan soul in that golden air | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Between the scriptured petals softly blown | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Peers breathless for the gift of grace unknown, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Ah! let none other written spell soe'er | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| But only the one Hope's one name be there,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Not less nor more, but even that word alone. | 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.