Suggested by the Last Words of Berengarius Ob. Anno Dom. 1O88
No more 'twixt conscience staggering and the PopeSoon shall I now before my God appear,By him to be acquitted, as I hope;By him to be condemned, as I fear.--
Words in this poem
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Suggested by the Last Words of Berengarius Ob. Anno Dom. 1O88 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, Suggested by the Last Words of Berengarius Ob. Anno Dom. 1O88, in Poems of Coleridge (1796–1817), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8208, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coleridge-poems/suggested-by-the-last-words-of-berengarius-ob-anno-dom-1o88.html, id L00344.
Form and metre
Suggested by the Last Words of Berengarius Ob. Anno Dom. 1O88 is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in common measure. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables.
See other poems in common measure.
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 popeA · appearB · hopeA · fearB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| No more 'twixt conscience staggering and the Pope | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Soon shall I now before my God appear, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| By him to be acquitted, as I hope; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| By him to be condemned, as I fear.-- | 9 | ····˘/··· |
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.