My own dim life should teach me this
My own dim life should teach me this,That life shall live for evermore,Else earth is darkness at the core,And dust and ashes all that is;
This round of green, this orb of flame,Fantastic beauty; such as lurksIn some wild Poet, when he worksWithout a conscience or an aim.
What then were God to such as I?’Twere hardly worth my while to chooseOf things all mortal, or to useA little patience ere I die;
’Twere best at once to sink to peace,Like birds the charming serpent draws,To drop head-foremost in the jawsOf vacant darkness and to cease.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My own dim life should teach me this is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, My own dim life should teach me this, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-34.html, id L18394.
Form and metre
My own dim life should teach me this is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBA thisA · evermoreB · coreB · isA
- 2 ABBA flameA · lurksB · worksB · aimA
- 3 ABBA iA · chooseB · useB · dieA
- 4 ABBA peaceA · drawsB · jawsB · ceaseA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My own dim life should teach me this, | 8 | ········ |
| That life shall live for evermore, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Else earth is darkness at the core, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And dust and ashes all that is; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| This round of green, this orb of flame, | 8 | ········ |
| Fantastic beauty; such as lurks | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| In some wild Poet, when he works | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Without a conscience or an aim. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| What then were God to such as I? | 8 | ········ |
| ’Twere hardly worth my while to choose | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of things all mortal, or to use | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A little patience ere I die; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| ’Twere best at once to sink to peace, | 8 | ········ |
| Like birds the charming serpent draws, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To drop head-foremost in the jaws | 8 | ···/···· |
| Of vacant darkness and to cease. | 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.