Apocalypse
I'm wife; I've finished that,That other state;I'm Czar, I'm woman now:It's safer so.
How odd the girl's life looksBehind this soft eclipse!I think that earth seems soTo those in heaven now.
This being comfort, thenThat other kind was pain;But why compare?I'm wife! stop there!
About this text
Apocalypse is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Apocalypse, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/apocalypse.html, id L03596.
Form and metre
Apocalypse is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.3 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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.
- 3 --AA then · pain · compareA · thereA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I'm wife; I've finished that, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That other state; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| I'm Czar, I'm woman now: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| It's safer so. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| How odd the girl's life looks | 6 | ······ |
| Behind this soft eclipse! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I think that earth seems so | 6 | ······ |
| To those in heaven now. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| This being comfort, then | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| That other kind was pain; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But why compare? | 4 | ··˘/ |
| I'm wife! stop there! | 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.