Compensation
The wings of Time are black and white,Pied with morning and with night.Mountain tall and ocean deepTrembling balance duly keep.In changing moon and tidal waveGlows the feud of Want and Have.Gauge of more and less through space,Electric star or pencil plays,The lonely Earth amid the ballsThat hurry through the eternal halls,A makeweight flying to the void,Supplemental asteroid,Or compensatory spark,Shoots across the neutral Dark.
Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine;Stanch and strong the tendrils twine:Though the frail ringlets thee deceive,None from its stock that vine can reave.Fear not, then, thou child infirm,There's no god dare wrong a worm;Laurel crowns cleave to deserts,And power to him who power exerts.Hast not thy share? On winged feet,Lo it rushes thee to meet;And all that Nature made thy own,Floating in air or pent in stone,Will rive the hills and swim the sea,And, like thy shadow, follow thee.
Words in this poem
- tidal a.
- Of or pertaining to tides; caused by tides; having tides; periodically rising and falling, or following and ebbing; as, tidal waters.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- makeweight n.
- That which is thrown into a scale to make weight; something of little account added to supply a deficiency or fill a gap.
- asteroid n.
- A starlike body; esp. one of the numerous small planets whose orbits lie between those of Mars and Jupiter; -- called also planetoids and minor planets. [Gr. astéroïde. See Aster.]
- compensatory a.
- Serving for compensation; making amends. Jer. Taylor.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- reave v. t.
- To take away by violence or by stealth; to snatch away; to rob; to despoil; to bereave. . [AS. reáfian, from reáf spoil, plunder, clothing, reófan to break (cf. bireófan to deprive of); akin to G. rauben to rob, Icel. raufa to rob, rjufa to break, vio]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- pent p. p.
- Penned or shut up; confined; -- often with up. [From Pen, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Compensation is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/compensation-2.html, id L07479.
Form and metre
Compensation is 28 lines in 2 stanzas of 14 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCC--DDEEFF whiteA · nightA · deepB · keepB · waveC · haveC · space · plays · ballsD · hallsD · voidE · asteroidE · sparkF · darkF
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFFGG vineA · twineA · deceiveB · reaveB · infirmC · wormC · desertsD · exertsD · feetE · meetE · ownF · stoneF · seaG · theeG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The wings of Time are black and white, | 8 | ········ |
| Pied with morning and with night. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Mountain tall and ocean deep | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Trembling balance duly keep. | 8 | /˘˘/˘/˘· |
| In changing moon and tidal wave | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Glows the feud of Want and Have. | 7 | ······· |
| Gauge of more and less through space, | 7 | ······· |
| Electric star or pencil plays, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| The lonely Earth amid the balls | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| That hurry through the eternal halls, | 9 | ·/˘··˘/˘· |
| A makeweight flying to the void, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Supplemental asteroid, | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Or compensatory spark, | 7 | ·˘/˘·˘· |
| Shoots across the neutral Dark. | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine; | 7 | ······· |
| Stanch and strong the tendrils twine: | 7 | ······· |
| Though the frail ringlets thee deceive, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| None from its stock that vine can reave. | 8 | ········ |
| Fear not, then, thou child infirm, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| There's no god dare wrong a worm; | 7 | ······· |
| Laurel crowns cleave to deserts, | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| And power to him who power exerts. | 8 | ·/···/˘/ |
| Hast not thy share? On winged feet, | 8 | ······˘· |
| Lo it rushes thee to meet; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And all that Nature made thy own, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Floating in air or pent in stone, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Will rive the hills and swim the sea, | 8 | ········ |
| And, like thy shadow, follow thee. | 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.