What hope is here for modern rhyme
What hope is here for modern rhymeTo him, who turns a musing eyeOn songs, and deeds, and lives, that lieForeshorten’d in the tract of time?
These mortal lullabies of painMay bind a book, may line a box,May serve to curl a maiden’s locks;Or when a thousand moons shall wane
A man upon a stall may find,And, passing, turn the page that tellsA grief--then changed to something else,Sung by a long forgotten mind.
But what of that? My darken’d waysShall ring with music all the same;To breathe my loss is more than fame,To utter love more sweet than praise.
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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What hope is here for modern rhyme 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, What hope is here for modern rhyme, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-75.html, id L18435.
Form and metre
What hope is here for modern rhyme 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 97%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 44% 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 rhymeA · eyeB · lieB · timeA
- 2 ABBA painA · boxB · locksB · waneA
- 3 ABBA findA · tellsB · elseB · mindA
- 4 ABBA waysA · sameB · fameB · praiseA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What hope is here for modern rhyme | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To him, who turns a musing eye | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On songs, and deeds, and lives, that lie | 8 | ········ |
| Foreshorten’d in the tract of time? | 9 | ········· |
| These mortal lullabies of pain | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| May bind a book, may line a box, | 8 | ········ |
| May serve to curl a maiden’s locks; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or when a thousand moons shall wane | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A man upon a stall may find, | 8 | ········ |
| And, passing, turn the page that tells | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A grief--then changed to something else, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sung by a long forgotten mind. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| But what of that? My darken’d ways | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Shall ring with music all the same; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To breathe my loss is more than fame, | 8 | ········ |
| To utter love more sweet than praise. | 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.