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Lyric Poem · Nature

To My Wife - With A Copy Of My Poems

by Oscar Wilde

1I can write no stately proem

2As a prelude to my lay;

3From a poet to a poem

4I would dare to say.

5For if of these fallen petals

6One to you seem fair,

7Love will waft it till it settles

8On your hair.

9And when wind and winter harden

10All the loveless land,

11It will whisper of the garden,

12You will understand.

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Quick facts

Poem
To My Wife - With A Copy Of My Poems
Poet
Oscar Wilde
Length
12 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Winter, Love

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
12 lines · 3 quatrains
Line length
Lines run 5-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Oscar Wilde1854–1900
Source record
PoetryDBTo My Wife - With A Copy Of My Poems by oscar-wilde, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 b9b0e68bd3e7d031
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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