The Vase of Life
Around the vase of Life at your slow paceHe has not crept, but turned it with his hands,And all its sides already understands.There, girt, one breathes alert for some great race;Whose road runs far by sands and fruitful space;Who laughs, yet through the jolly throng has pass'd;Who weeps, nor stays for weeping; who at last,A youth, stands somewhere crowned, with silent face.
And he has filled this vase with wine for blood,With blood for tears, with spice for burning vow,With watered flowers for buried love most fit;And would have cast it shattered to the flood,Yet in Fate's name has kept it whole; which nowStands empty till his ashes fall in it.
Words in this poem
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Vase of Life 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 Vase of Life, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-vase-of-life.html, id L21010.
Form and metre
The Vase of Life is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABBAACCA paceA · handsB · understandsB · raceA · spaceA · pass'dC · lastC · faceA
- 2 ABCABC bloodA · vowB · fitC · floodA · nowB · itC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Around the vase of Life at your slow pace | 10 | ·········· |
| He has not crept, but turned it with his hands, | 10 | ·········· |
| And all its sides already understands. | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| There, girt, one breathes alert for some great race; | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Whose road runs far by sands and fruitful space; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who laughs, yet through the jolly throng has pass'd; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Who weeps, nor stays for weeping; who at last, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A youth, stands somewhere crowned, with silent face. | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| And he has filled this vase with wine for blood, | 10 | ·········· |
| With blood for tears, with spice for burning vow, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With watered flowers for buried love most fit; | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘··· |
| And would have cast it shattered to the flood, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Yet in Fate's name has kept it whole; which now | 10 | ·········· |
| Stands empty till his ashes fall in it. | 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.