The Path
There are no beaten paths to Glory's height,There are no rules to compass greatness known;Each for himself must cleave a path alone,And press his own way forward in the fight.Smooth is the way to ease and calm delight,And soft the road Sloth chooseth for her own;But he who craves the flower of life full-blown,Must struggle up in all his armor dight!What though the burden bear him sorely downAnd crush to dust the mountain of his pride,Oh, then, with strong heart let him still abide;For rugged is the roadway to renown,Nor may he hope to gain the envied crown,Till he hath thrust the looming rocks aside.
Words in this poem
- dight v. t.
- To prepare; to put in order; hence, to dress, or put on; to array; to adorn. [OF. dihten, AS. dihtan to dictate, command, dispose, arrange, fr. L. dictare to say often, dictate, order; cf. G. dichten to write poetry, fr. L. dictare. See D]
- sorely adv.
- In a sore manner; grievously; painfully; as, to be sorely afflicted.
- roadway n.
- A road; especially, the part traveled by carriages.
- looming n.
- The indistinct and magnified appearance of objects seen in particular states of the atmosphere. See Mirage.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Path 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, The Path, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-path.html, id L00507.
Form and metre
The Path is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDDCCD heightA · knownB · aloneB · fightA · delightA · ownB · blownB · dightA · downC · prideD · abideD · renownC · crownC · asideD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There are no beaten paths to Glory's height, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There are no rules to compass greatness known; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Each for himself must cleave a path alone, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| And press his own way forward in the fight. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Smooth is the way to ease and calm delight, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And soft the road Sloth chooseth for her own; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But he who craves the flower of life full-blown, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Must struggle up in all his armor dight! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| What though the burden bear him sorely down | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And crush to dust the mountain of his pride, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Oh, then, with strong heart let him still abide; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For rugged is the roadway to renown, | 10 | ·/˘··/··˘/ |
| Nor may he hope to gain the envied crown, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Till he hath thrust the looming rocks aside. | 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.