The One Grief
ONE grief there is, the helpmeet of my heart,That shall not from me till my days be sped,That walks beside me in sunshine and in shade,And hath in all my fortunes equal part.At first I feared it, and would often startAghast to find it bending o'er my bed,Till usage slowly dulled the edge of dread,And one cold night I cried: How warm thou art!
Since then we two have travelled hand in hand,And, lo, my grief has been interpreterFor me in many a fierce and alien landWhose speech young Joy had failed to understand,Plucking me tribute of red gold and myrrhFrom desolate whirlings of the desert sand.
Words in this poem
- helpmeet n.
- A wife; a helpmate. [See Helpmate.]
- 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,]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The One Grief is in the public domain. This text is taken from Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #4549; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edith Wharton, The One Grief, in Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verse (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4549, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wharton-artemis/the-one-grief.html, id L22236.
Form and metre
The One Grief is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 AB-AABBA heartA · spedB · shade · partA · startA · bedB · dreadB · artA
- 2 A-AA-A handA · interpreter · landA · understandA · myrrh · sandA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ONE grief there is, the helpmeet of my heart, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That shall not from me till my days be sped, | 10 | ·········· |
| That walks beside me in sunshine and in shade, | 11 | ··˘/··/···· |
| And hath in all my fortunes equal part. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| At first I feared it, and would often start | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Aghast to find it bending o'er my bed, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Till usage slowly dulled the edge of dread, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And one cold night I cried: How warm thou art! | 10 | ·········· |
| Since then we two have travelled hand in hand, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And, lo, my grief has been interpreter | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| For me in many a fierce and alien land | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Whose speech young Joy had failed to understand, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Plucking me tribute of red gold and myrrh | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| From desolate whirlings of the desert sand. | 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.