Epitaph
Bethink, poor heart, what bitter kind of jestMad Destiny this tender stripling played;For a warm breast of maiden to his breast,She laid a slab of marble on his head.
They say, through patience, chalkBecomes a ruby stone;Ah, yes! but by the true heart's bloodThe chalk is crimson grown.
Words in this poem
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- stripling n.
- A youth in the state of adolescence, or just passing from boyhood to manhood; a lad. [Dim. of strip; as if a small strip from the main stock or steam.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph 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, Epitaph, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/epitaph.html, id L07531.
Form and metre
Epitaph is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 A-A- jestA · played · breastA · head
- 2 -A-A chalk · stoneA · blood · grownA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bethink, poor heart, what bitter kind of jest | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Mad Destiny this tender stripling played; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘/˘· |
| For a warm breast of maiden to his breast, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| She laid a slab of marble on his head. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| They say, through patience, chalk | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Becomes a ruby stone; | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Ah, yes! but by the true heart's blood | 8 | ········ |
| The chalk is crimson grown. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.