Escape
I never hear the word "escape"Without a quicker blood,A sudden expectation,A flying attitude.
I never hear of prisons broadBy soldiers battered down,But I tug childish at my bars, --Only to fail again!
About this text
Escape 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, Escape, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/escape.html, id L03642.
Form and metre
Escape is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I never hear the word "escape" | 7 | ·/···˘/ |
| Without a quicker blood, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A sudden expectation, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| A flying attitude. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| I never hear of prisons broad | 7 | ·/··/˘· |
| By soldiers battered down, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| But I tug childish at my bars, -- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Only to fail again! | 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.