Triumphant
Who never lost, are unpreparedA coronet to find;Who never thirsted, flagonsAnd cooling tamarind.
Who never climbed the weary league --Can such a foot exploreThe purple territoriesOn Pizarro's shore?
How many legions overcome?The emperor will say.How many colors takenOn Revolution Day?
How many bullets bearest?The royal scar hast thou?Angels, write "Promoted"On this soldier's brow!
Words in this poem
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
- explore v. t.
- To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Triumphant 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, Triumphant, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/triumphant.html, id L03640.
Form and metre
Triumphant is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables. 5 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.
- 1 -A-A unprepared · findA · flagons · tamarindA
- 2 -A-A league · exploreA · territories · shoreA
- 3 -A-A overcome · sayA · taken · dayA
- 4 -A-A bearest · thouA · promoted · browA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who never lost, are unprepared | 7 | ·/···˘/ |
| A coronet to find; | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| Who never thirsted, flagons | 6 | ·//˘·· |
| And cooling tamarind. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Who never climbed the weary league -- | 7 | ·/··/˘· |
| Can such a foot explore | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The purple territories | 7 | ·/˘/˘·˘ |
| On Pizarro's shore? | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| How many legions overcome? | 7 | ·//˘/˘· |
| The emperor will say. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| How many colors taken | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| On Revolution Day? | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| How many bullets bearest? | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| The royal scar hast thou? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Angels, write "Promoted" | 6 | /˘·˘/˘ |
| On this soldier's brow! | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.