Misapprehension
Out of my heart, one day, I wrote a song,With my heart's blood imbued,Instinct with passion, tremulously strong,With grief subdued;Breathing a fortitudePain-bought.And one who claimed much love for what I wrought,Read and considered it,And spoke:"Ay, brother,--'t is well writ,But where's the joke?"
Words in this poem
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
- fortitude n.
- Power to resist attack; strength; firmness. [L. fortitudo, fr. fortis strong. See Fort.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Misapprehension 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, Misapprehension, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/misapprehension.html, id L00646.
Form and metre
Misapprehension is 11 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCCDEDE. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 9% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABBCCDEDE songA · imbuedB · strongA · subduedB · fortitudeB · boughtC · wroughtC · itD · spokeE · writD · jokeE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Out of my heart, one day, I wrote a song, | 10 | ·········· |
| With my heart's blood imbued, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Instinct with passion, tremulously strong, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| With grief subdued; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Breathing a fortitude | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Pain-bought. | 2 | ·· |
| And one who claimed much love for what I wrought, | 10 | ·········· |
| Read and considered it, | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| And spoke: | 2 | ·· |
| "Ay, brother,--'t is well writ, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| But where's the joke?" | 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.