Reunited
Let us begin, dear love, where we left off;Tie up the broken threads of that old dream,And go on happy as before, and seemLovers again, though all the world may scoff.
Let us forget the graves which lie betweenOur parting and our meeting, and the tearsThat rusted out the gold-work of the years,The frosts that fell upon our gardens green.
Let us forget the cold, malicious FateWho made our loving hearts her idle toys,And once more revel in the old sweet joysOf happy love. Nay, it is not too late!
Forget the deep-ploughed furrows in my brow;Forget the silver gleaming in my hair;Look only in my eyes! Oh! darling, thereThe old love shone no warmer then than now.
Down in the tender deeps of thy dear eyesI find the lost sweet memory of my youth,Bright with the holy radiance of thy truth,And hallowed with the blue of summer skies.
Tie up the broken threads and let us go,Like reunited lovers, hand in hand,Back, and yet onward, to the sunny landOf our To Be, which was our Long Ago.
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Reunited 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, Reunited, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/reunited.html, id L22146.
Form and metre
Reunited is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBA offA · dreamB · seemB · scoffA
- 2 ABBA betweenA · tearsB · yearsB · greenA
- 3 ABBA fateA · toysB · joysB · lateA
- 4 ABBA browA · hairB · thereB · nowA
- 5 ABBA eyesA · youthB · truthB · skiesA
- 6 ABBA goA · handB · landB · agoA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Let us begin, dear love, where we left off; | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Tie up the broken threads of that old dream, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And go on happy as before, and seem | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Lovers again, though all the world may scoff. | 10 | /˘˘/······ |
| Let us forget the graves which lie between | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Our parting and our meeting, and the tears | 10 | //˘·//˘··· |
| That rusted out the gold-work of the years, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The frosts that fell upon our gardens green. | 10 | ······//˘· |
| Let us forget the cold, malicious Fate | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| Who made our loving hearts her idle toys, | 10 | ··//˘··/˘· |
| And once more revel in the old sweet joys | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of happy love. Nay, it is not too late! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Forget the deep-ploughed furrows in my brow; | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Forget the silver gleaming in my hair; | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Look only in my eyes! Oh! darling, there | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The old love shone no warmer then than now. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Down in the tender deeps of thy dear eyes | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I find the lost sweet memory of my youth, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Bright with the holy radiance of thy truth, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And hallowed with the blue of summer skies. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Tie up the broken threads and let us go, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Like reunited lovers, hand in hand, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Back, and yet onward, to the sunny land | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of our To Be, which was our Long Ago. | 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.