Remembrance
Swifter far than summer's flight--Swifter far than youth's delight--Swifter far than happy night,Art thou come and gone--As the earth when leaves are dead,As the night when sleep is sped,As the heart when joy is fled,I am left lone, alone.
The swallow summer comes again--The owlet night resumes her reign--But the wild-swan youth is fainTo fly with thee, false as thou.--My heart each day desires the morrow;Sleep itself is turned to sorrow;Vainly would my winter borrowSunny leaves from any bough.
Lilies for a bridal bed--Roses for a matron's head--Violets for a maiden dead--Pansies let MY flowers be:On the living grave I bearScatter them without a tear--Let no friend, however dear,Waste one hope, one fear for me.
Words in this poem
- swifter v. t.
- To tighten, as slack standing rigging, by bringing the opposite shrouds nearer.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- owlet n.
- A small owl; especially, the European species (Athene noctua), and the California flammulated owlet (Megascops flammeolus). Owlet moth (Zoöl.), any noctuid moth. [Dim. of owl. Cf. Howlet.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- 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.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Remembrance 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, Remembrance, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/remembrance.html, id L16448.
Form and metre
Remembrance is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AAA-BBB- flightA · delightA · nightA · gone · deadB · spedB · fledB · alone
- 2 AAABCC-B againA · reignA · fainA · thouB · morrowC · sorrowC · borrow · boughB
- 3 AAABCCCB bedA · headA · deadA · beB · bearC · tearC · dearC · meB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Swifter far than summer's flight-- | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Swifter far than youth's delight-- | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Swifter far than happy night, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Art thou come and gone-- | 5 | ····· |
| As the earth when leaves are dead, | 7 | ······· |
| As the night when sleep is sped, | 7 | ······· |
| As the heart when joy is fled, | 7 | ······· |
| I am left lone, alone. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The swallow summer comes again-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The owlet night resumes her reign-- | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| But the wild-swan youth is fain | 7 | ······· |
| To fly with thee, false as thou.-- | 7 | ······· |
| My heart each day desires the morrow; | 9 | ····˘/·/˘ |
| Sleep itself is turned to sorrow; | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Vainly would my winter borrow | 8 | /˘··/˘/· |
| Sunny leaves from any bough. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Lilies for a bridal bed-- | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Roses for a matron's head-- | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Violets for a maiden dead-- | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Pansies let MY flowers be: | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| On the living grave I bear | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Scatter them without a tear-- | 7 | /˘····· |
| Let no friend, however dear, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Waste one hope, one fear for me. | 7 | ······· |
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.