The Loser
He lost his money first of all--And losing that is half the story--And later on he tried a fallWith Fate, in things less transitory.
He lost his heart--and found it dead--(His one and only true discovery),And after that he lost his head,And lost his chances of recovery.
He lost his honour bit by bitUntil the thing was out of question.He worried so at losing it,He lost his sleep and his digestion.
He lost his temper--and for good--The remnants of his reputation,His taste in wine, his choice of food,And then, in rapid culmination,
His certitudes, his sense of truth,His memory, his self-control,The love that graced his early youth,And lastly his immortal soul.
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- culmination n.
- The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavently body; passage across the meridian; transit. [Cf. F.culmination]
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
- lastly adv.
- In the last place; in conclusion.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Loser is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, The Loser, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/the-loser.html, id L21674.
Form and metre
The Loser is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABAB allA · storyB · fallA · transitoryB
- 2 ABAB deadA · discoveryB · headA · recoveryB
- 3 ABAB bitA · questionB · itA · digestionB
- 4 -A-A good · reputationA · food · culminationA
- 5 ABAB truthA · controlB · youthA · soulB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He lost his money first of all | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| --And losing that is half the story-- | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| And later on he tried a fall | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With Fate, in things less transitory. | 9 | ·····/˘·˘ |
| He lost his heart--and found it dead-- | 8 | ········ |
| (His one and only true discovery), | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| And after that he lost his head, | 8 | ········ |
| And lost his chances of recovery. | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| He lost his honour bit by bit | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Until the thing was out of question. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| He worried so at losing it, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| He lost his sleep and his digestion. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| He lost his temper--and for good-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The remnants of his reputation, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| His taste in wine, his choice of food, | 8 | ········ |
| And then, in rapid culmination, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| His certitudes, his sense of truth, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| His memory, his self-control, | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| The love that graced his early youth, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And lastly his immortal soul. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
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.