Change
Changed? Yes, I will confess it--I have changed.I do not love in the old fond way.I am your friend still--time has not estrangedOne kindly feeling of that vanished day.
But the bright glamour which made life a dream,The rapture of that time, its sweet content,Like visions of a sleeper's brain they seem--And yet I cannot tell you how they went.
Why do you gaze with such accusing eyesUpon me, dear? Is it so very strangeThat hearts, like all things underneath God's skiesShould sometimes feel the influence of change?
The birds, the flowers, the foliage of the trees,The stars which seem so fixed and so sublime,Vast continents and the eternal seas--All these do change with ever-changing time.
The face our mirror shows us year on yearIs not the same; our dearest aim or need,Our lightest thought or feeling, hope or fear,All, all the law of alteration heed.
How can we ask the human heart to stayContent with fancies of Youth's earliest hours?The year outgrows the violets of May,Although, maybe, there are no fairer flowers.
And life may hold no sweeter love than this,Which lies so cold, so voiceless, and so dumb.And shall I miss it, dear? Why, yes, we missThe violets always--till the roses come!
Words in this poem
- glamour n.
- A charm affecting the eye, making objects appear different from what they really are. [Scot. glamour, glamer; cf. Icel. glámeggdr one who is troubled with the glaucoma; or Icel. glam-s weakness of sight, glamour; glamr name of the moon, also of a ]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
- 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
Change is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Change, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/change.html, id L22159.
Form and metre
Change is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABAB changedA · wayB · estrangedA · dayB
- 2 ABAB dreamA · contentB · seemA · wentB
- 3 ABAB eyesA · strangeB · skiesA · changeB
- 4 ABAB treesA · sublimeB · seasA · timeB
- 5 ABAB yearA · needB · fearA · heedB
- 6 ABAB stayA · hoursB · mayA · flowersB
- 7 ABAB thisA · dumbB · missA · comeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Changed? Yes, I will confess it--I have changed. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| I do not love in the old fond way. | 9 | ········· |
| I am your friend still--time has not estranged | 10 | ········˘/ |
| One kindly feeling of that vanished day. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| But the bright glamour which made life a dream, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The rapture of that time, its sweet content, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Like visions of a sleeper's brain they seem-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And yet I cannot tell you how they went. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Why do you gaze with such accusing eyes | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Upon me, dear? Is it so very strange | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That hearts, like all things underneath God's skies | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Should sometimes feel the influence of change? | 10 | ·/···/˘˘·· |
| The birds, the flowers, the foliage of the trees, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| The stars which seem so fixed and so sublime, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Vast continents and the eternal seas-- | 10 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘· |
| All these do change with ever-changing time. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The face our mirror shows us year on year | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| Is not the same; our dearest aim or need, | 10 | ····//˘··· |
| Our lightest thought or feeling, hope or fear, | 10 | //˘··/˘··· |
| All, all the law of alteration heed. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| How can we ask the human heart to stay | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Content with fancies of Youth's earliest hours? | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘/ |
| The year outgrows the violets of May, | 10 | ···/·/˘˘·· |
| Although, maybe, there are no fairer flowers. | 11 | ··/˘···/˘/˘ |
| And life may hold no sweeter love than this, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which lies so cold, so voiceless, and so dumb. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And shall I miss it, dear? Why, yes, we miss | 10 | ·········· |
| The violets always--till the roses come! | 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.