Love's Farewell
Treading the path to nobler ends,A long farewell to love I gave,Resolved my country, and my friends,All that remain'd of me should have.
And this resolve no mortal dame,None but those eyes could have o'erthrown;The nymph I dare not, need not name,So high, so like herself alone.
Thus the tall oak, which now aspiresAbove the fear of private fires,Grown and design'd for nobler use,Not to make warm, but build the house,Though from our meaner flames secure,Must that which falls from heaven endure.
Words in this poem
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's Farewell is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham, Project Gutenberg ebook #12322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Waller, Love's Farewell, in Cooper's Hill, and Other Poems (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/love-s-farewell.html, id L09043.
Form and metre
Love's Farewell is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% 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 ABAB endsA · gaveB · friendsA · haveB
- 2 ABAB dameA · o'erthrownB · nameA · aloneB
- 3 AA--BB aspiresA · firesA · use · house · secureB · endureB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Treading the path to nobler ends, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| A long farewell to love I gave, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Resolved my country, and my friends, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| All that remain'd of me should have. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And this resolve no mortal dame, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| None but those eyes could have o'erthrown; | 8 | ········ |
| The nymph I dare not, need not name, | 8 | ········ |
| So high, so like herself alone. | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Thus the tall oak, which now aspires | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Above the fear of private fires, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Grown and design'd for nobler use, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Not to make warm, but build the house, | 8 | ········ |
| Though from our meaner flames secure, | 8 | ··//˘·˘/ |
| Must that which falls from heaven endure. | 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.