To --. 'When passion's trance is overpast'
When passion's trance is overpast,If tenderness and truth could last,Or live, whilst all wild feelings keepSome mortal slumber, dark and deep,I should not weep, I should not weep!
It were enough to feel, to see,Thy soft eyes gazing tenderly,And dream the rest--and burn and beThe secret food of fires unseen,Couldst thou but be as thou hast been,
After the slumber of the yearThe woodland violets reappear;All things revive in field or grove,And sky and sea, but two, which moveAnd form all others, life and love.
Words in this poem
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- reappear v. i.
- To appear again.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To --. 'When passion's trance is overpast' 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, To --. 'When passion's trance is overpast', 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/to-when-passion-s-trance-is-overpast.html, id L25655.
Form and metre
To --. 'When passion's trance is overpast' is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic 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 AABBB overpastA · lastA · keepB · deepB · weepB
- 2 A-A-- seeA · tenderly · beA · unseen · been
- 3 AA-BB yearA · reappearA · grove · moveB · loveB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When passion's trance is overpast, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| If tenderness and truth could last, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Or live, whilst all wild feelings keep | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some mortal slumber, dark and deep, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I should not weep, I should not weep! | 8 | ········ |
| It were enough to feel, to see, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Thy soft eyes gazing tenderly, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And dream the rest--and burn and be | 8 | ········ |
| The secret food of fires unseen, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘/ |
| Couldst thou but be as thou hast been, | 8 | ········ |
| After the slumber of the year | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The woodland violets reappear; | 8 | ·/·/˘·˘/ |
| All things revive in field or grove, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And sky and sea, but two, which move | 8 | ········ |
| And form all others, life and love. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.