Compensation
For each ecstatic instantWe must an anguish payIn keen and quivering ratioTo the ecstasy.
For each beloved hourSharp pittances of years,Bitter contested farthingsAnd coffers heaped with tears.
About this text
Compensation 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, Compensation, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/compensation.html, id L03643.
Form and metre
Compensation is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 62% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short 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.
- 2 -A-A hour · yearsA · farthings · tearsA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| For each ecstatic instant | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| We must an anguish pay | 6 | ···/˘· |
| In keen and quivering ratio | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To the ecstasy. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| For each beloved hour | 6 | ··˘//˘ |
| Sharp pittances of years, | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Bitter contested farthings | 7 | /˘˘/˘/˘ |
| And coffers heaped with tears. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.