To a Republican Friend, 1848
God knows it, I am with you. If to prizeThose virtues, prized and practised by too few,But prized, but loved, but eminent in you,Man’s fundamental life; if to despise
The barren optimistic sophistriesOf comfortable moles, whom what they doTeaches the limit of the just and true(And for such doing they require not eyes);
If sadness at the long heart-wasting showWherein earth’s great ones are disquieted;If thoughts, not idle, while before me flow
The armies of the homeless and unfed,--If these are yours, if this is what you are,Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share.
Words in this poem
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- optimistic a.
- Of or pertaining to optimism; tending, or conforming, to the opinion that all events are ordered for the best.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- homeless a.
- Destitute of a home. [AS.hamleas.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Republican Friend, 1848 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54985; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matthew Arnold, To a Republican Friend, 1848, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/to-a-republican-friend-1848.html, id L06938.
Form and metre
To a Republican Friend, 1848 is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 prizeA · fewB · youB · despiseA
- 2 -AA- sophistries · doA · trueA · eyes
- 3 A-A showA · disquieted · flowA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| God knows it, I am with you. If to prize | 10 | ·········· |
| Those virtues, prized and practised by too few, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But prized, but loved, but eminent in you, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Man’s fundamental life; if to despise | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| The barren optimistic sophistries | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘·· |
| Of comfortable moles, whom what they do | 10 | ·/˘˘˘····· |
| Teaches the limit of the just and true | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| (And for such doing they require not eyes); | 10 | ···/·˘/˘·· |
| If sadness at the long heart-wasting show | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Wherein earth’s great ones are disquieted; | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| If thoughts, not idle, while before me flow | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The armies of the homeless and unfed,-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··˘ |
| If these are yours, if this is what you are, | 10 | ·········· |
| Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share. | 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.