To the Defilers
Go, thieves, and take your riches, creepTo corners out of honest sight;We shall not be so poor to keepOne thought of envy or despite.
But know that in sad surety whenYour sullen will betrays this earthTo sorrows of contagion, thenBeelzebub renews his birth.
When you defile the pleasant streamsAnd the wild bird’s abiding-place,You massacre a million dreamsAnd cast your spittle in God’s face.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- beelzebub n.
- The title of a heathen deity to whom the Jews ascribed the sovereignty of the evil spirits; hence, the Devil or a devil. See Baal.
- massacre n.
- The killing of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people; as, the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day. [F., fr. LL. mazacrium; cf. Prov. G. metzgern, metzgen, to kill cattle, G. metzger a butcher, and LG. matsken to cut, hew, OHG. meizan to cut, Goth. máitan.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Defilers 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, To the Defilers, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/to-the-defilers.html, id L23023.
Form and metre
To the Defilers is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAB creepA · sightB · keepA · despiteB
- 2 ABAB whenA · earthB · thenA · birthB
- 3 ABAB streamsA · placeB · dreamsA · faceB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Go, thieves, and take your riches, creep | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To corners out of honest sight; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| We shall not be so poor to keep | 8 | ········ |
| One thought of envy or despite. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| But know that in sad surety when | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Your sullen will betrays this earth | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| To sorrows of contagion, then | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Beelzebub renews his birth. | 8 | ˘/˘˘˘/·· |
| When you defile the pleasant streams | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And the wild bird’s abiding-place, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| You massacre a million dreams | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| And cast your spittle in God’s face. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.