For a Cynic
Birth is a crimeAll men commit;Life gives them timeTo atone for it;Death ends the rhymeAs the price for it.
Words in this poem
- atone v. t.
- To set at one; to reduce to concord; to reconcile, as parties at variance; to appease.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For a Cynic is in the public domain. This text is taken from Color, Project Gutenberg ebook #70543; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Countee Cullen, For a Cynic, in Color (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70543, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cullen-color/for-a-cynic.html, id L01438.
Form and metre
For a Cynic is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABAB. The lines average 4.3 syllables.
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 ABABAB crimeA · commitB · timeA · itB · rhymeA · itB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Birth is a crime | 4 | ···· |
| All men commit; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Life gives them time | 4 | ···· |
| To atone for it; | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| Death ends the rhyme | 4 | ···· |
| As the price for it. | 5 | ····· |
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.