(1)You have cho|sen and clung | to the chance | they sent | you,
Life sweet | as per|fume, and pure | as prayer;
But will | it not one | day in heav|en repent | you?
Will they sol|ace you whol|ly, the days | that were?
Will you lift | up your eyes | between sad|ness and bliss?
Meet mine | and see | where the great | love is,
And trem|ble and turn | and be changed? | Content | you,
The gate | is strait; | I shall not | be there.
(Anapæstic dimeter with iambic substitution and redundance. A most perfect combination.)
(2)If love | were what | the rose | is
And I | were like | the leaf,
Our lives | would grow | togeth|er
In sad | or sing|ing wea|ther,
Blown fields | or flower|ful clo|ses,
Green plea|sure or | grey grief:
If love | were what | the rose | is
And I | were like | the leaf.
(Pure iambics. Dimeter catalectic and brachycatalectic by turns.)
(3)When the | game be|gan be|tween them | for a | jest,
He played | king and | she played | queen to | match the | best.
Laughter | soft as | tears, and | tears that | turned to | laughter,
These were | things she | sought for | years and | sorrowed | after.
(Trochaic trimeter catalectic; quite pure throughout.)
As a | star feels | the sun | and fal|ters,
Touched to | death by | divin|er eyes—
As on | the old gods' | untend|ed altars
The old fire | of with|ered wor|ship dies.
("Long measure"; but completely transfigured by the redundance and double rhyme in the odd places, and the trochaic and anapæstic substitution.)