The Book of Martyrs
Read, sweet, how others strove,Till we are stouter;What they renounced,Till we are less afraid;How many times they boreThe faithful witness,Till we are helped,As if a kingdom cared!
Read then of faithThat shone above the fagot;Clear strains of hymnThe river could not drown;Brave names of menAnd celestial women,Passed out of recordInto renown!
About this text
The Book of Martyrs 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 Book of Martyrs, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/the-book-of-martyrs.html, id L03580.
Form and metre
The Book of Martyrs is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.3 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 2 ---A-A-A faith · fagot · hymn · drownA · men · womenA · record · renownA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Read, sweet, how others strove, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Till we are stouter; | 5 | ····· |
| What they renounced, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Till we are less afraid; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| How many times they bore | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The faithful witness, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Till we are helped, | 4 | ···· |
| As if a kingdom cared! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Read then of faith | 4 | ···· |
| That shone above the fagot; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Clear strains of hymn | 4 | ···· |
| The river could not drown; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Brave names of men | 4 | ···· |
| And celestial women, | 6 | ·˘/˘/˘ |
| Passed out of record | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Into renown! | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.