Femina Contra Mundum
The sun was black with judgment, and the moonBlood: but betweenI saw a man stand, saying, 'To me at leastThe grass is green.
'There was no star that I forgot to fearWith love and wonder.The birds have loved me'; but no answer came--Only the thunder.
Once more the man stood, saying, 'A cottage door,Wherethrough I gazedThat instant as I turned--yea, I am vile;Yet my eyes blazed.
'For I had weighed the mountains in a balance,And the skies in a scale,I come to sell the stars--old lamps for new--Old stars for sale.'
Then a calm voice fell all the thunder through,A tone less rough:'Thou hast begun to love one of my worksAlmost enough.'
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Femina Contra Mundum is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wild Knight and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #12037; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: G. K. Chesterton, Femina Contra Mundum, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/femina-contra-mundum.html, id L17160.
Form and metre
Femina Contra Mundum is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 -A-A moon · betweenA · least · greenA
- 2 -A-A fear · wonderA · came · thunderA
- 3 -A-A door · gazedA · vile · blazedA
- 4 -A-A balance · scaleA · new · saleA
- 5 -A-A through · roughA · works · enoughA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sun was black with judgment, and the moon | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Blood: but between | 4 | ···· |
| I saw a man stand, saying, 'To me at least | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| The grass is green. | 4 | ···· |
| 'There was no star that I forgot to fear | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| With love and wonder. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The birds have loved me'; but no answer came-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Only the thunder. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Once more the man stood, saying, 'A cottage door, | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘· |
| Wherethrough I gazed | 4 | ˘/·· |
| That instant as I turned--yea, I am vile; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Yet my eyes blazed. | 4 | ···· |
| 'For I had weighed the mountains in a balance, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| And the skies in a scale, | 6 | ······ |
| I come to sell the stars--old lamps for new-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Old stars for sale.' | 4 | ···· |
| Then a calm voice fell all the thunder through, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A tone less rough: | 4 | ···· |
| 'Thou hast begun to love one of my works | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Almost enough.' | 4 | /·˘/ |
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.