Forbearance
Gently I took that which ungently came,And without scorn forgave:--Do thou the same.A wrong done to thee think a cat's-eye sparkThou wouldst not see, were not thine own heart darkThine own keen sense of wrong that thirsts for sin,Fear that--the spark self-kindled from within,Which blown upon will blind thee with its glare,Or smother'd stifle thee with noisome air.Clap on the extinguisher, pull up the blinds,And soon the ventilated spirit findsIts natural daylight. If a foe have kenn'd,Or worse than foe, an alienated friend,A rib of dry rot in thy ship's stout side,Think it God's message, and in humble prideWith heart of oak replace it;--thine the gains--Give him the rotten timber for his pains!
Words in this poem
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- noisome a.
- Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia. [For noysome, fr. noy for annoy. See Annoy.]
- extinguisher n.
- One who, or that which, extinguishes; esp., a hollow cone or other device for extinguishing a flame, as of a torch or candle.
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Forbearance is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Coleridge, Project Gutenberg ebook #8208; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Forbearance, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/forbearance.html, id L00346.
Form and metre
Forbearance is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEE--FFGG cameA · sameA · sparkB · darkB · sinC · withinC · glareD · airD · blindsE · findsE · kenn'd · friend · sideF · prideF · gainsG · painsG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gently I took that which ungently came, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And without scorn forgave:--Do thou the same. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| A wrong done to thee think a cat's-eye spark | 10 | ·········· |
| Thou wouldst not see, were not thine own heart dark | 10 | ·········· |
| Thine own keen sense of wrong that thirsts for sin, | 10 | ·········· |
| Fear that--the spark self-kindled from within, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which blown upon will blind thee with its glare, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or smother'd stifle thee with noisome air. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Clap on the extinguisher, pull up the blinds, | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| And soon the ventilated spirit finds | 9 | ···/˘·˘/· |
| Its natural daylight. If a foe have kenn'd, | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| Or worse than foe, an alienated friend, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| A rib of dry rot in thy ship's stout side, | 10 | ·········· |
| Think it God's message, and in humble pride | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With heart of oak replace it;--thine the gains-- | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Give him the rotten timber for his pains! | 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.