The Secret Love
You and I have found the secret way,None can bar our love or say us nay:All the world may stare and never knowYou and I are twined together so.
You and I for all his vaunted widthKnow the giant Space is but a myth;Over miles and miles of pure deceitYou and I have found our lips can meet.
You and I have laughed the leagues apartIn the soft delight of heart to heart.If there's a gulf to meet or limit set,You and I have never found it yet.
You and I have trod the backward wayTo the happy heart of yesterday,To the love we felt in ages past.You and I have found it still to last.
You and I have found the joy had birthIn the angel childhood of the earth,Hid within the heart of man and maid.You and I of Time are not afraid.
You and I can mock his fabled wing,For a kiss is an immortal thing.And the throb wherein those old lips metIs a living music in us yet.
Words in this poem
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- throb v. i.
- To beat, or pulsate, with more than usual force or rapidity; to beat in consequence of agitation; to palpitate; -- said of the heart, pulse, etc. [OE. ; of uncertain origin; cf. Russ. trepete a trembling, and E. trepidation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Secret Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Divine Vision, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #36913; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George William Russell, The Secret Love, in The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36913, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/russell-divine-vision/the-secret-love.html, id L11543.
Form and metre
The Secret Love is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB wayA · nayA · knowB · soB
- 2 --AA width · myth · deceitA · meetA
- 3 AABB apartA · heartA · setB · yetB
- 4 AABB wayA · yesterdayA · pastB · lastB
- 5 AABB birthA · earthA · maidB · afraidB
- 6 AABB wingA · thingA · metB · yetB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You and I have found the secret way, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| None can bar our love or say us nay: | 9 | ···/····· |
| All the world may stare and never know | 8 | ······/· |
| You and I are twined together so. | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| You and I for all his vaunted width | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Know the giant Space is but a myth; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Over miles and miles of pure deceit | 8 | ······˘/ |
| You and I have found our lips can meet. | 9 | ·····/··· |
| You and I have laughed the leagues apart | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| In the soft delight of heart to heart. | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| If there's a gulf to meet or limit set, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| You and I have never found it yet. | 8 | ····/··· |
| You and I have trod the backward way | 9 | ······/˘· |
| To the happy heart of yesterday, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| To the love we felt in ages past. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| You and I have found it still to last. | 9 | ········· |
| You and I have found the joy had birth | 9 | ········· |
| In the angel childhood of the earth, | 9 | ··/˘/···· |
| Hid within the heart of man and maid. | 9 | ········· |
| You and I of Time are not afraid. | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| You and I can mock his fabled wing, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| For a kiss is an immortal thing. | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| And the throb wherein those old lips met | 9 | ········· |
| Is a living music in us yet. | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
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.