Do You Remember Once III
Farewell, dear heart, enough of vain despairing!If I have erred I plead but one excuse --The jewel were a lesser joy in wearingThat cost a lesser agony to lose.
I had not bid for beautifuller hoursHad I not found the door so near unsealed,Nor hoped, had you not filled my arms with flowers,For that one flower that bloomed too far afield.
If I have wept, it was because, forsaken,I felt perhaps more poignantly than someThe blank eternity from which we wakenAnd all the blank eternity to come.
And I betrayed how sweet a thing and tender(In the regret with which my lip was curled)Seemed in its tragic, momentary splendorMy transit through the beauty of the world.
Words in this poem
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- afield adv.
- To, in, or on the field. [Pref. a- + field.]
- poignantly adv.
- In a poignant manner.
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Do You Remember Once III is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, Do You Remember Once III, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/do-you-remember-once-iii.html, id L12965.
Form and metre
Do You Remember Once III is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 ABAB despairingA · excuseB · wearingA · loseB
- 2 ABAB hoursA · unsealedB · flowersA · afieldB
- 3 ABAB forsakenA · someB · wakenA · comeB
- 4 ABAB tenderA · curledB · splendorA · worldB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Farewell, dear heart, enough of vain despairing! | 11 | ·/··˘/··˘/˘ |
| If I have erred I plead but one excuse -- | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The jewel were a lesser joy in wearing | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| That cost a lesser agony to lose. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| I had not bid for beautifuller hours | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Had I not found the door so near unsealed, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Nor hoped, had you not filled my arms with flowers, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| For that one flower that bloomed too far afield. | 10 | ···/····˘/ |
| If I have wept, it was because, forsaken, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| I felt perhaps more poignantly than some | 10 | ··˘/·/˘˘·· |
| The blank eternity from which we waken | 11 | ··˘/˘˘···/˘ |
| And all the blank eternity to come. | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| And I betrayed how sweet a thing and tender | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| (In the regret with which my lip was curled) | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Seemed in its tragic, momentary splendor | 11 | ···/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| My transit through the beauty of the world. | 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.