If I Should Die. Rondeau
If I should die, how kind you all would grow!In that strange hour I would not have one foe.There are no words too beautiful to sayOf one who goes forevermore awayAcross that ebbing tide which has no flow.
With what new lustre my good deeds would glow!If faults were mine, no one would call them so,Or speak of me in aught but praise that day,If I should die.
Ah, friends! before my listening ear lies low,While I can hear and understand, bestowThat gentle treatment and fond love, I pray,The lustre of whose late though radiant wayWould gild my grave with mocking light, I know,If I should die.
Words in this poem
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
If I Should Die. Rondeau 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, If I Should Die. Rondeau, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/if-i-should-die-rondeau.html, id L22186.
Form and metre
If I Should Die. Rondeau is 15 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBA growA · foeA · sayB · awayB · flowA
- 2 AA-- glowA · soA · day · die
- 3 AABBA- lowA · bestowA · prayB · wayB · knowA · die
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If I should die, how kind you all would grow! | 10 | ·········· |
| In that strange hour I would not have one foe. | 10 | ···/······ |
| There are no words too beautiful to say | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Of one who goes forevermore away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Across that ebbing tide which has no flow. | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| With what new lustre my good deeds would glow! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If faults were mine, no one would call them so, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or speak of me in aught but praise that day, | 10 | ·········· |
| If I should die. | 4 | ···· |
| Ah, friends! before my listening ear lies low, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| While I can hear and understand, bestow | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| That gentle treatment and fond love, I pray, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The lustre of whose late though radiant way | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Would gild my grave with mocking light, I know, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| If I should die. | 4 | ···· |
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.