I Loved
I loved illustrious cities and the crowdsThat eddy through their incandescent nights.I loved remote horizons with far cloudsGirdled, and fringed about with snowy heights.I loved fair women, their sweet, conscious waysOf wearing among hands that covet and pleadThe rose ablossom at the rainbow's baseThat bounds the world's desire and all its need.Nature I worshipped, whose fecundityEmbraces every vision the most fair,Of perfect benediction. From a boyI gloated on existence. Earth to meSeemed all-sufficient and my sojourn thereOne trembling opportunity for joy.
Words in this poem
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- fecundity n.
- The quality or power of producing fruit; fruitfulness; especially (Biol.), the quality in female organisms of reproducing rapidly and in great numbers. [L. fecunditas: cf. F. fécondité. See Fecund.]
- sojourn v. i.
- To dwell for a time; to dwell or live in a place as a temporary resident or as a stranger, not considering the place as a permanent habitation; to delay; to tarry. [OE. sojornen, sojournen, OF. sojorner, sejorner, F. séjourner, fr. L. sub under, about + diurnus belonging to the day. See Journal, Diurnal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Loved 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, I Loved, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/i-loved.html, id L12953.
Form and metre
I Loved is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 64% 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-C-C-DE-DE crowdsA · nightsB · cloudsA · heightsB · ways · pleadC · base · needC · fecundity · fairD · boyE · me · thereD · joyE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I loved illustrious cities and the crowds | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| That eddy through their incandescent nights. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| I loved remote horizons with far clouds | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Girdled, and fringed about with snowy heights. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| I loved fair women, their sweet, conscious ways | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of wearing among hands that covet and plead | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| The rose ablossom at the rainbow's base | 10 | ·······/·· |
| That bounds the world's desire and all its need. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Nature I worshipped, whose fecundity | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Embraces every vision the most fair, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Of perfect benediction. From a boy | 10 | ·/··˘/˘··· |
| I gloated on existence. Earth to me | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Seemed all-sufficient and my sojourn there | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| One trembling opportunity for joy. | 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.