Love-Doubts
With so sweet a promise givenAll my bosom burneth;Hope uplifts my heart to heaven,Yet the doubt returneth,Lest perchance that hope should beCrushed and shattered suddenly.
On one girl my fancy so,On one star, reposes;Her sweet lips with honey flowAnd the scent of roses:In her smile I laugh, and fireFills me with her love's desire.
Love in measure over-muchStrikes man's soul with anguish;Anxious love's too eager touchMakes man fret and languish:Thus in doubt and grief I pine;Pain more sure was none than mine.
Burning in love's fiery flood,Lo, my life is wasted!Such the fever of my bloodThat I scarce have tastedMortal bread and wine, but supLike a god love's nectar-cup.
Words in this poem
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love-Doubts is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Addington Symonds, Love-Doubts, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/love-doubts.html, id L11825.
Form and metre
Love-Doubts is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 13 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 -A-A-- given · burnethA · heaven · returnethA · be · suddenly
- 2 ABABCC soA · reposesB · flowA · rosesB · fireC · desireC
- 3 ABABCC muchA · anguishB · touchA · languishB · pineC · mineC
- 4 ABABCC floodA · wastedB · bloodA · tastedB · supC · cupC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With so sweet a promise given | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| All my bosom burneth; | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Hope uplifts my heart to heaven, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Yet the doubt returneth, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Lest perchance that hope should be | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Crushed and shattered suddenly. | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| On one girl my fancy so, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| On one star, reposes; | 6 | ···/·˘ |
| Her sweet lips with honey flow | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the scent of roses: | 6 | ····/˘ |
| In her smile I laugh, and fire | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Fills me with her love's desire. | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Love in measure over-much | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Strikes man's soul with anguish; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Anxious love's too eager touch | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Makes man fret and languish: | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Thus in doubt and grief I pine; | 7 | ······· |
| Pain more sure was none than mine. | 7 | ······· |
| Burning in love's fiery flood, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Lo, my life is wasted! | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Such the fever of my blood | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| That I scarce have tasted | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Mortal bread and wine, but sup | 7 | /˘····· |
| Like a god love's nectar-cup. | 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.