Drowning is not so pitiful
Drowning is not so pitifulAs the attempt to rise.Three times, 't is said, a sinking manComes up to face the skies,And then declines foreverTo that abhorred abodeWhere hope and he part company, --For he is grasped of God.The Maker's cordial visage,However good to see,Is shunned, we must admit it,Like an adversity.
Words in this poem
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
- adversity n.
- Opposition; contrariety. Wyclif. [OE. adversite, F. adversité, fr. L. adversitas.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Drowning is not so pitiful 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, Drowning is not so pitiful, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/drowning-is-not-so-pitiful.html, id L19007.
Form and metre
Drowning is not so pitiful is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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.
- 1 -A-A-------- pitiful · riseA · man · skiesA · forever · abode · company · god · visage · see · it · adversity
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drowning is not so pitiful | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| As the attempt to rise. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Three times, 't is said, a sinking man | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Comes up to face the skies, | 6 | ······ |
| And then declines forever | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| To that abhorred abode | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| Where hope and he part company, -- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| For he is grasped of God. | 6 | ······ |
| The Maker's cordial visage, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| However good to see, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Is shunned, we must admit it, | 7 | ····˘/· |
| Like an adversity. | 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.