"Only a Year"
ONE year ago,--a ringing voice,A clear blue eye,And clustering curls of sunny hair,Too fair to die.
Only a year,--no voice, no smile,No glance of eye,No clustering curls of golden hair,Fair but to die!
One year ago,--what loves, what schemesFar into life!What joyous hopes, what high resolves,What generous strife!
The silent picture on the wall,The burial stone,Of all that beauty, life, and joyRemain alone!
One year,--one year,--one little year,And so much gone!And yet the even flow of lifeMoves calmly on.
The grave grows green, the flowers bloom fair,Above that head;No sorrowing tint of leaf or spraySays he is dead.
No pause or hush of merry birds,That sing above,Tells us how coldly sleeps belowThe form we love.
Where hast thou been this year, beloved?What hast thou seen?What visions fair, what glorious life,Where thou hast been?
The veil! the veil! so thin, so strong!'Twixt us and thee;The mystic veil! when shall it fall,That we may see?
Not dead, not sleeping, not even gone,But present still,And waiting for the coming hourOf God's sweet will.
Lord of the living and the dead,Our Saviour dear!We lay in silence at thy feetThis sad, sad year!
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- burial n.
- A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS. byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli sepulcher.]
- coldly adv.
- In a cold manner; without warmth, animation, or feeling; with indifference; calmly.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- 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,]
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"Only a Year" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Religious Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44778; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Only a Year", in Religious Poems (1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44778, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stowe-religious-poems/only-a-year.html, id L22717.
Form and metre
"Only a Year" is 44 lines in 11 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -A-A voice · eyeA · hair · dieA
- 2 -A-A smile · eyeA · hair · dieA
- 3 -A-A schemes · lifeA · resolves · strifeA
- 4 -A-A wall · stoneA · joy · aloneA
- 5 -A-A year · goneA · life · onA
- 6 -A-A fair · headA · spray · deadA
- 7 -A-A birds · aboveA · below · loveA
- 9 -A-A strong · theeA · fall · seeA
- 10 -A-A gone · stillA · hour · willA
- 11 -A-A dead · dearA · feet · yearA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ONE year ago,--a ringing voice, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| A clear blue eye, | 4 | ···· |
| And clustering curls of sunny hair, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| Too fair to die. | 4 | ···· |
| Only a year,--no voice, no smile, | 8 | /˘······ |
| No glance of eye, | 4 | ···· |
| No clustering curls of golden hair, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| Fair but to die! | 4 | ···· |
| One year ago,--what loves, what schemes | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Far into life! | 4 | ···· |
| What joyous hopes, what high resolves, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| What generous strife! | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| The silent picture on the wall, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The burial stone, | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Of all that beauty, life, and joy | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Remain alone! | 4 | ˘/˘/ |
| One year,--one year,--one little year, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And so much gone! | 4 | ···· |
| And yet the even flow of life | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Moves calmly on. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The grave grows green, the flowers bloom fair, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Above that head; | 4 | ···· |
| No sorrowing tint of leaf or spray | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| Says he is dead. | 4 | ···· |
| No pause or hush of merry birds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That sing above, | 4 | ···· |
| Tells us how coldly sleeps below | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The form we love. | 4 | ···· |
| Where hast thou been this year, beloved? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| What hast thou seen? | 4 | ···· |
| What visions fair, what glorious life, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| Where thou hast been? | 4 | ···· |
| The veil! the veil! so thin, so strong! | 8 | ········ |
| 'Twixt us and thee; | 4 | ···· |
| The mystic veil! when shall it fall, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That we may see? | 4 | ···· |
| Not dead, not sleeping, not even gone, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| But present still, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And waiting for the coming hour | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Of God's sweet will. | 4 | ···· |
| Lord of the living and the dead, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Our Saviour dear! | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| We lay in silence at thy feet | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| This sad, sad year! | 4 | ···· |
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.