Winged Hours
Each hour until we meet is as a birdThat wings from far his gradual way alongThe rustling covert of my soul,--his songStill loudlier trilled through leaves more deeply stirr'd:But at the hour of meeting, a clear wordIs every note he sings, in Love's own tongue;Yet, Love, thou know'st the sweet strain wrong,Through our contending kisses oft unheard.
What of that hour at last, when for her sakeNo wing may fly to me nor song may flow;When, wandering round my life unleaved, IThe bloodied feathers scattered in the brake,And think how she, far from me, with like eyesSees through the untuneful bough the wingless skies?
Words in this poem
- unheard a.
- Not heard; not perceived by the ear; as, words unheard by those present.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Winged Hours 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, Winged Hours, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/winged-hours.html, id L20945.
Form and metre
Winged Hours is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABBAA-BA birdA · alongB · songB · stirr'dA · wordA · tongue · wrongB · unheardA
- 2 A--ABB sakeA · flow · i · brakeA · eyesB · skiesB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Each hour until we meet is as a bird | 10 | ·/········ |
| That wings from far his gradual way along | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The rustling covert of my soul,--his song | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Still loudlier trilled through leaves more deeply stirr'd: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But at the hour of meeting, a clear word | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Is every note he sings, in Love's own tongue; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Yet, Love, thou know'st the sweet strain wrong, | 8 | ········ |
| Through our contending kisses oft unheard. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| What of that hour at last, when for her sake | 10 | ···/······ |
| No wing may fly to me nor song may flow; | 10 | ·········· |
| When, wandering round my life unleaved, I | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| The bloodied feathers scattered in the brake, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And think how she, far from me, with like eyes | 10 | ·········· |
| Sees through the untuneful bough the wingless skies? | 12 | ·········/˘· |
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.