Vanity
A wan sky greener than the lawn,A wan lawn paler than the sky.She gave a flower into my hand,And all the hours of eve went by.
Who knows what round the corner waitsTo smite? If shipwreck, snare, or slurShall leave me with a head to lift,Worthy of him that spoke with her.
A wan sky greener than the lawn,A wan lawn paler than the sky.She gave a flower into my hand,And all the days of life went by.
Live ill or well, this thing is mine,From all I guard it, ill or well.One tawdry, tattered, faded flowerTo show the jealous kings in hell.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- slur v. t.
- To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace. Cudworth. [Cf. OE. sloor mud, clay, Icel. sl, slo, to trail or drag one's self along, D. sleuren, sloren, to train, to drag, to do negligently and slovenly, D. sloor, sloe]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- tawdry a.
- Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. [Said to be corrupted from Saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning Saint Ethelreda, implying therefore, originally, bought at the fair of St. Audrey, where laces and g]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vanity 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, Vanity, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/vanity.html, id L17155.
Form and metre
Vanity is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A lawn · skyA · hand · byA
- 2 -A-A waits · slurA · lift · herA
- 3 -A-A lawn · skyA · hand · byA
- 4 -A-A mine · wellA · flower · hellA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A wan sky greener than the lawn, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A wan lawn paler than the sky. | 8 | ········ |
| She gave a flower into my hand, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And all the hours of eve went by. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Who knows what round the corner waits | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To smite? If shipwreck, snare, or slur | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Shall leave me with a head to lift, | 8 | ········ |
| Worthy of him that spoke with her. | 8 | /˘······ |
| A wan sky greener than the lawn, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A wan lawn paler than the sky. | 8 | ········ |
| She gave a flower into my hand, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And all the days of life went by. | 8 | ········ |
| Live ill or well, this thing is mine, | 8 | ········ |
| From all I guard it, ill or well. | 8 | ········ |
| One tawdry, tattered, faded flower | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| To show the jealous kings in hell. | 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.