Grace
How much, preventing God, how much I oweTo the defences thou hast round me set;Example, custom, fear, occasion slow,--These scorned bondmen were my parapet.I dare not peep over this parapetTo gauge with glance the roaring gulf below,The depths of sin to which I had descended,Had not these me against myself defended.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Grace 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, Grace, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/grace.html, id L07556.
Form and metre
Grace is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBACC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 ABABBACC oweA · setB · slowA · parapetB · parapetB · belowA · descendedC · defendedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How much, preventing God, how much I owe | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| To the defences thou hast round me set; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Example, custom, fear, occasion slow,-- | 10 | ˘/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| These scorned bondmen were my parapet. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I dare not peep over this parapet | 9 | ······/˘· |
| To gauge with glance the roaring gulf below, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The depths of sin to which I had descended, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Had not these me against myself defended. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
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.