Resignation
Long had I grieved at what I deemed abuse;But now I am as grain within the mill.If so be thou must crush me for thy use,Grind on, O potent God, and do thy will!
About this text
Resignation 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, Resignation, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/resignation.html, id L00623.
Form and metre
Resignation is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 abuseA · millB · useA · willB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Long had I grieved at what I deemed abuse; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But now I am as grain within the mill. | 10 | ·········· |
| If so be thou must crush me for thy use, | 10 | ·········· |
| Grind on, O potent God, and do thy will! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.