Refuge
The clouds their backs together laid,The north begun to push,The forests galloped till they fell,The lightning skipped like mice;The thunder crumbled like a stuff --How good to be safe in tombs,Where nature's temper cannot reach,Nor vengeance ever comes!
Words in this poem
- backs n.
- Among leather dealers, the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Refuge 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, Refuge, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/refuge.html, id L03627.
Form and metre
Refuge is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 98%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The clouds their backs together laid, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The north begun to push, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| The forests galloped till they fell, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The lightning skipped like mice; | 7 | ·/˘·˘·· |
| The thunder crumbled like a stuff -- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| How good to be safe in tombs, | 7 | ······· |
| Where nature's temper cannot reach, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Nor vengeance ever comes! | 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.