The Balloon
You've seen balloons set, haven't you?So stately they ascendIt is as swans discarded youFor duties diamond.
Their liquid feet go softly outUpon a sea of blond;They spurn the air as 't were too meanFor creatures so renowned.
Their ribbons just beyond the eye,They struggle some for breath,And yet the crowd applauds below;They would not encore death.
The gilded creature strains and spins,Trips frantic in a tree,Tears open her imperial veinsAnd tumbles in the sea.
The crowd retire with an oathThe dust in streets goes down,And clerks in counting-rooms observe,''T was only a balloon.'
Words in this poem
- spurn v. t.
- To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise,]
- encore adv.
- Once more; again; -- used by the auditors and spectators of plays, concerts, and other entertainments, to call for a repetition of a particular part. [F. The last part of the word is fr. L. hora hour. See Hour.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Balloon 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, The Balloon, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/the-balloon.html, id L03797.
Form and metre
The Balloon is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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.
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 ABAB youA · ascendB · youA · diamondB
- 3 -A-A eye · breathA · below · deathA
- 4 -A-A spins · treeA · veins · seaA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You've seen balloons set, haven't you? | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| So stately they ascend | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| It is as swans discarded you | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| For duties diamond. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Their liquid feet go softly out | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Upon a sea of blond; | 6 | ······ |
| They spurn the air as 't were too mean | 9 | ········· |
| For creatures so renowned. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Their ribbons just beyond the eye, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They struggle some for breath, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And yet the crowd applauds below; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| They would not encore death. | 6 | ···/·· |
| The gilded creature strains and spins, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Trips frantic in a tree, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Tears open her imperial veins | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘· |
| And tumbles in the sea. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The crowd retire with an oath | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| The dust in streets goes down, | 6 | ······ |
| And clerks in counting-rooms observe, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| ''T was only a balloon.' | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
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.