Hope
Hope Was but a timid friend;She sat without the grated den,Watching how my fate would tend,Even as selfish-hearted men.
She was cruel in her fear;Through the bars one dreary day,I looked out to see her there,And she turned her face away!
Like a false guard, false watch keeping,Still, in strife, she whispered peace;She would sing while I was weeping;If I listened, she would cease.
False she was, and unrelenting;When my last joys strewed the ground,Even Sorrow saw, repenting,Those sad relics scattered round;
Hope, whose whisper would have givenBalm to all my frenzied pain,Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven,Went, and ne'er returned again!
Words in this poem
- grated a.
- Furnished with a grate or grating; as, grated windows. [From 2d Grate.]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- unrelenting a.
- Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hope is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Project Gutenberg ebook #1019; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, Hope, in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1019, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bronte-poems/hope.html, id L13239.
Form and metre
Hope 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 trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 5% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 friendA · denB · tendA · menB
- 2 ABAB fearA · dayB · thereA · awayB
- 3 ABAB keepingA · peaceB · weepingA · ceaseB
- 4 ABAB unrelentingA · groundB · repentingA · roundB
- 5 AAAA givenA · painA · heavenA · againA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hope Was but a timid friend; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| She sat without the grated den, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Watching how my fate would tend, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Even as selfish-hearted men. | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| She was cruel in her fear; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Through the bars one dreary day, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| I looked out to see her there, | 8 | ··˘····· |
| And she turned her face away! | 8 | ···˘··˘/ |
| Like a false guard, false watch keeping, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Still, in strife, she whispered peace; | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| She would sing while I was weeping; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| If I listened, she would cease. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| False she was, and unrelenting; | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| When my last joys strewed the ground, | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| Even Sorrow saw, repenting, | 8 | /˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Those sad relics scattered round; | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Hope, whose whisper would have given | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Balm to all my frenzied pain, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Went, and ne'er returned again! | 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.