Fragment: 'A Gentle Story of Two Lovers Young'
A gentle story of two lovers young,Who met in innocence and died in sorrow,And of one selfish heart, whose rancour clungLike curses on them; are ye slow to borrowThe lore of truth from such a tale?Or in this world's deserted vale,Do ye not see a star of gladnessPierce the shadows of its sadness,--When ye are cold, that love is a light sentFrom Heaven, which none shall quench, to cheer the innocent?
NOTE:cold]told cj. A.C. Bradley.For the metre cp. Fragment: To a Friend Released from Prison.
Words in this poem
- rancour n.
- The deepest malignity or spite; deep-seated enmity or malice; inveterate hatred. [OE. rancour, OF. rancor, rancur, F. rancune, fr. L. rancor rancidity, rankness; tropically, an old grudge, rancor, fr. rancere to be rank or rancid.]
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
- borrow v. t.
- To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend. [OE. borwen, AS. borgian, fr. borg, borh, pledge; akin to D. borg, G. borg; prob. fr. root of AS. beorgan to protect. Borough.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fragment: 'A Gentle Story of Two Lovers Young' is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Fragment: 'A Gentle Story of Two Lovers Young', in The Complete Poetical Works, Volume II (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/fragment-a-gentle-story-of-two-lovers-young.html, id L16368.
Form and metre
Fragment: 'A Gentle Story of Two Lovers Young' is 13 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% 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 A-A-BBCCDD youngA · sorrow · clungA · borrow · taleB · valeB · gladnessC · sadnessC · sentD · innocentD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A gentle story of two lovers young, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Who met in innocence and died in sorrow, | 11 | ···/˘˘···/˘ |
| And of one selfish heart, whose rancour clung | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Like curses on them; are ye slow to borrow | 11 | ·/˘······/· |
| The lore of truth from such a tale? | 8 | ········ |
| Or in this world's deserted vale, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Do ye not see a star of gladness | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Pierce the shadows of its sadness,-- | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| When ye are cold, that love is a light sent | 10 | ·········· |
| From Heaven, which none shall quench, to cheer the innocent? | 11 | ·/·······/˘ |
| NOTE: | 1 | · |
| cold]told cj. A.C. Bradley. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| For the metre cp. Fragment: To a Friend Released from Prison. | 15 | ··/˘·/˘···˘/·/˘ |
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.