Despair
Let me close the eyes of my soulThat I may not seeWhat stands between thee and me.
Let me shut the ears of my heartThat I may not hearA voice that drowns yours, my dear.
Let me cut the cords of my life,Of my desolate being,Since cursed is my hearing and seeing.
Words in this poem
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Despair is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Despair, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/despair.html, id L00858.
Form and metre
Despair is 9 lines in 3 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 -AA soul · seeA · meA
- 2 -AA heart · hearA · dearA
- 3 -AA life · beingA · seeingA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Let me close the eyes of my soul | 8 | ········ |
| That I may not see | 5 | ····· |
| What stands between thee and me. | 7 | ······· |
| Let me shut the ears of my heart | 8 | ········ |
| That I may not hear | 5 | ····· |
| A voice that drowns yours, my dear. | 7 | ······· |
| Let me cut the cords of my life, | 8 | ········ |
| Of my desolate being, | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Since cursed is my hearing and seeing. | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
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.