Mithridates
I cannot spare water or wine,Tobacco-leaf, or poppy, or rose;From the earth-poles to the Line,All between that works or grows,Every thing is kin of mine.
Give me agates for my meat;Give me cantharids to eat;From air and ocean bring me foods,From all zones and altitudes;--
From all natures, sharp and slimy,Salt and basalt, wild and tame:Tree and lichen, ape, sea-lion,Bird, and reptile, be my game.
Ivy for my fillet band;Blinding dog-wood in my hand;Hemlock for my sherbet cull me,And the prussic juice to lull me;Swing me in the upas boughs,Vampyre-fanned, when I carouse.
Too long shut in strait and few,Thinly dieted on dew,I will use the world, and sift it,To a thousand humors shift it,As you spin a cherry.O doleful ghosts, and goblins merry!O all you virtues, methods, mights,Means, appliances, delights,Reputed wrongs and braggart rights,Smug routine, and things allowed,Minorities, things under cloud!Hither! take me, use me, fill me,Vein and artery, though ye kill me!
Words in this poem
- cull v. t.
- To separate, select, or pick out; to choose and gather or collect; as, to cuil flowers. [OE., OF. cuillir, coillir, F.cueillir, to gather, pluck, pick, fr. L. colligere. See Coil, v. t., and cf. Collect.]
- prussic a.
- designating the acid now called hydrocyanic acid, but formerly called prussic acid, because Prussian blue is derived from it or its compounds. See Hydrocyanic. [Cf. F. prussique.]
- lull v. t.
- To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm; to soothe; to quiet. [Akin to OD. lullen to sing to sleep, G. lullen, Dan. lulle, Sw. lulla; all of imitative origin. Cf. Loll, Lollard.]
- smug v. t.
- To make smug, or spruce.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mithridates 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, Mithridates, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/mithridates.html, id L07388.
Form and metre
Mithridates is 32 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 ABABA wineA · roseB · lineA · growsB · mineA
- 2 AABB meatA · eatA · foodsB · altitudesB
- 3 -A-A slimy · tameA · lion · gameA
- 4 AABBCC bandA · handA · meB · meB · boughsC · carouseC
- 5 AABBCC-DDEEFF fewA · dewA · itB · itB · cherryC · merryC · mights · delightsD · rightsD · allowedE · cloudE · meF · meF
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot spare water or wine, | 8 | ·˘/·/˘·· |
| Tobacco-leaf, or poppy, or rose; | 9 | ˘/···/˘·· |
| From the earth-poles to the Line, | 7 | ······· |
| All between that works or grows, | 7 | ······· |
| Every thing is kin of mine. | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| Give me agates for my meat; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Give me cantharids to eat; | 7 | ······· |
| From air and ocean bring me foods, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| From all zones and altitudes;-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From all natures, sharp and slimy, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Salt and basalt, wild and tame: | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| Tree and lichen, ape, sea-lion, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Bird, and reptile, be my game. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Ivy for my fillet band; | 7 | /˘··˘/· |
| Blinding dog-wood in my hand; | 7 | /˘····· |
| Hemlock for my sherbet cull me, | 8 | /···/˘·· |
| And the prussic juice to lull me; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Swing me in the upas boughs, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Vampyre-fanned, when I carouse. | 8 | ···˘··˘/ |
| Too long shut in strait and few, | 7 | ······· |
| Thinly dieted on dew, | 7 | /˘/˘˘·· |
| I will use the world, and sift it, | 8 | ········ |
| To a thousand humors shift it, | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| As you spin a cherry. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| O doleful ghosts, and goblins merry! | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| O all you virtues, methods, mights, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Means, appliances, delights, | 7 | ·˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Reputed wrongs and braggart rights, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Smug routine, and things allowed, | 8 | ·˘/··˘/˘ |
| Minorities, things under cloud! | 8 | ˘/˘˘···· |
| Hither! take me, use me, fill me, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Vein and artery, though ye kill me! | 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.