Compensation
Why should I keep holidayWhen other men have none?Why but because, when these are gay,I sit and mourn alone?
And why, when mirth unseals all tongues,Should mine alone be dumb?Ah! late I spoke to silent throngs,And now their hour is come.
Words in this poem
- 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
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.html, id L07405.
Form and metre
Compensation is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, 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 7.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 A-A- holidayA · none · gayA · alone
- 2 -A-A tongues · dumbA · throngs · comeA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Why should I keep holiday | 7 | ····/˘· |
| When other men have none? | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Why but because, when these are gay, | 8 | ········ |
| I sit and mourn alone? | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And why, when mirth unseals all tongues, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Should mine alone be dumb? | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Ah! late I spoke to silent throngs, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And now their hour is come. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
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.