Limits
Who knows this or that?Hark in the wall to the rat:Since the world was, he has gnawed;Of his wisdom, of his fraudWhat dost thou know?In the wretched little beastIs life and heart,Child and parent,Not without relationTo fruitful field and sun and moon.What art thou? His wicked eyeIs cruel to thy cruelty.
About this text
Limits 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, Limits, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/limits.html, id L07574.
Form and metre
Limits is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB----CC-- thatA · ratA · gnawedB · fraudB · know · beast · heart · parent · relationC · moonC · eye · cruelty
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who knows this or that? | 5 | ····· |
| Hark in the wall to the rat: | 7 | ······· |
| Since the world was, he has gnawed; | 8 | ·······˘ |
| Of his wisdom, of his fraud | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What dost thou know? | 4 | ···· |
| In the wretched little beast | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Is life and heart, | 4 | ···· |
| Child and parent, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Not without relation | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| To fruitful field and sun and moon. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| What art thou? His wicked eye | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Is cruel to thy cruelty. | 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.