New and Old
I and new love, in all its living bloom,Sat vis-a-vis, while tender twilight hoursWent softly by us, treading as on flowers.Then suddenly I saw within the roomThe old love, long since lying in its tomb.It dropped the cerecloth from its fleshless faceAnd smiled on me, with a remembered graceThat, like the noontide, lit the gloaming's gloom.
Upon its shroud there hung the grave's green mould,About it hung the odor of the dead;Yet from its cavernous eyes such light was shedThat all my life seemed gilded, as with gold;Unto the trembling new love '"Go," I said"I do not need thee, for I have the old."
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- cerecloth n.
- A cloth smeared with melted wax, or with some gummy or glutinous matter. [L. cera wax + E. cloth.]
- fleshless a.
- Destitute of flesh; lean. Carlyle.
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- cavernous a.
- Full of caverns; resembling a cavern or large cavity; hollow. [L. cavernosus: cf. F. caverneux.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
New and Old 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, New and Old, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/new-and-old.html, id L22163.
Form and metre
New and Old is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABBAACCA bloomA · hoursB · flowersB · roomA · tombA · faceC · graceC · gloomA
- 2 ABBABA mouldA · deadB · shedB · goldA · saidB · oldA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I and new love, in all its living bloom, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sat vis-a-vis, while tender twilight hours | 11 | ·····/˘/·/˘ |
| Went softly by us, treading as on flowers. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Then suddenly I saw within the room | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| The old love, long since lying in its tomb. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| It dropped the cerecloth from its fleshless face | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And smiled on me, with a remembered grace | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| That, like the noontide, lit the gloaming's gloom. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Upon its shroud there hung the grave's green mould, | 10 | ·········· |
| About it hung the odor of the dead; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Yet from its cavernous eyes such light was shed | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That all my life seemed gilded, as with gold; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Unto the trembling new love '"Go," I said | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| "I do not need thee, for I have the old." | 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.