The Invitation to Love
List, my girl, with words I woo;Lay not wanton hands on you:Sit before you, in your faceGazing, ah! and seeking grace:Fix mine eyes, nor let them roveFrom the mark where shafts of loveTheir flight wing.Try, my girl, O try what blissYoung men render when they kiss!Youth is alway sturdy, straight;Old age totters in its gait.These delights of love we bringHave the suppleness of spring,Softness, sweetness, wantoning;Clasp, my Phyllis, in their ringSweeter sweets than poets sing,Anything and everything!
After daytime's heat from heavenDews on thirsty fields are given;After verdant leaf and stemShoots the white flower's diadem;After the white flower's bloomTo the night their faint perfumeLilies fling.Try, my girl, etc., da capo.
Words in this poem
- suppleness n.
- The quality or state of being supple; flexibility; pliableness; pliancy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Invitation to Love 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, The Invitation to Love, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/the-invitation-to-love.html, id L11844.
Form and metre
The Invitation to Love is 25 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 56% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% 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 AABB--CDDEECCCCCC wooA · youA · faceB · graceB · rove · love · wingC · blissD · kissD · straightE · gaitE · bringC · springC · wantoningC · ringC · singC · everythingC
- 2 --AABB-- heaven · given · stemA · diademA · bloomB · perfumeB · fling · capo
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 |
|---|---|---|
| List, my girl, with words I woo; | 7 | ······· |
| Lay not wanton hands on you: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sit before you, in your face | 7 | ······· |
| Gazing, ah! and seeking grace: | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Fix mine eyes, nor let them rove | 7 | ······· |
| From the mark where shafts of love | 7 | ······· |
| Their flight wing. | 3 | ··· |
| Try, my girl, O try what bliss | 7 | ······· |
| Young men render when they kiss! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Youth is alway sturdy, straight; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Old age totters in its gait. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| These delights of love we bring | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Have the suppleness of spring, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Softness, sweetness, wantoning; | 7 | /˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Clasp, my Phyllis, in their ring | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sweeter sweets than poets sing, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Anything and everything! | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| After daytime's heat from heaven | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Dews on thirsty fields are given; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| After verdant leaf and stem | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Shoots the white flower's diadem; | 7 | ···//˘· |
| After the white flower's bloom | 7 | ····/˘· |
| To the night their faint perfume | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Lilies fling. | 3 | /˘· |
| Try, my girl, etc., da capo. | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
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.