Love's Reason
For that thy face is fair I love thee not;Nor yet because thy brown benignant eyesHave sudden gleams of gladness and surprise,Like woodland brooks that cross a sunlit spot:Nor for thy body, born without a blot,And loveliest when it shines with no disguisePure as the star of Eve in Paradise,--For all these outward things I love thee not:
But for a something in thy form and face,Thy looks and ways, of primal harmony;A certain soothing charm, a vital graceThat breathes of the eternal womanly,And makes me feel the warmth of Nature's breast,When in her arms, and thine, I sink to rest.
Words in this poem
- benignant a.
- Kind; gracious; favorable. [LL. benignans, p. pr. of benignare, from L. benignus. See Benign.]
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Reason is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, Love's Reason, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/love-s-reason.html, id L22806.
Form and metre
Love's Reason is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAAB-A notA · eyesB · surpriseB · spotA · blotA · disguiseB · paradise · notA
- 2 A-A-BB faceA · harmony · graceA · womanly · breastB · restB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| For that thy face is fair I love thee not; | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor yet because thy brown benignant eyes | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Have sudden gleams of gladness and surprise, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Like woodland brooks that cross a sunlit spot: | 10 | ·/·····/·· |
| Nor for thy body, born without a blot, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And loveliest when it shines with no disguise | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| Pure as the star of Eve in Paradise,-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For all these outward things I love thee not: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But for a something in thy form and face, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thy looks and ways, of primal harmony; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| A certain soothing charm, a vital grace | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| That breathes of the eternal womanly, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| And makes me feel the warmth of Nature's breast, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When in her arms, and thine, I sink to rest. | 10 | ·········· |
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.