The Fugitive
Beauty has come to make no longer stayThan the bright buds of MayIn May-time do.
Beauty is with us for one hour, one hour,Life is so brief a flower;Thoughts are so few.
Thoughts are so few with mastery to giveShape to these fugitiveDear brevities,
That even in its hour beauty is blind,Because the shallow mindNot sees, not sees.
And in the mind of man only can beAlert prosperityFor beauty brief.
So, what can be but little comes to lessUpon the wildernessOf unbelief.
And beauty that has but an hour to spendWith you for friend,Goes outcast by.
But know, but know--for all she is outcast--It is not she at last,But you that die.
Words in this poem
- unbelief n.
- The withholding of belief; doubt; incredulity; skepticism. [Pref. un- not + belief: cf. AS. ungeleáfa.]
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fugitive is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, The Fugitive, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/the-fugitive.html, id L23012.
Form and metre
The Fugitive is 24 lines in 8 stanzas of 3 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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.
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 AAB stayA · mayA · doB
- 2 CCB hourC · flowerC · fewB
- 4 DD- blindD · mindD · sees
- 5 --E be · prosperity · briefE
- 6 --E less · wilderness · unbeliefE
- 7 FFG spendF · friendF · byG
- 8 HHG outcastH · lastH · dieG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beauty has come to make no longer stay | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Than the bright buds of May | 6 | ······ |
| In May-time do. | 4 | ···· |
| Beauty is with us for one hour, one hour, | 10 | /˘·····/·/ |
| Life is so brief a flower; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Thoughts are so few. | 4 | ···· |
| Thoughts are so few with mastery to give | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Shape to these fugitive | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Dear brevities, | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| That even in its hour beauty is blind, | 9 | ·/··//˘·· |
| Because the shallow mind | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Not sees, not sees. | 4 | ···· |
| And in the mind of man only can be | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Alert prosperity | 6 | ˘/˘/˘˘ |
| For beauty brief. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| So, what can be but little comes to less | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Upon the wilderness | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Of unbelief. | 4 | ···· |
| And beauty that has but an hour to spend | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| With you for friend, | 4 | ···· |
| Goes outcast by. | 4 | ·/·· |
| But know, but know--for all she is outcast-- | 10 | ········/· |
| It is not she at last, | 6 | ······ |
| But you that die. | 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.