Nemesis
Already blushes on thy cheekThe bosom thought which thou must speak;The bird, how far it haply roamBy cloud or isle, is flying home;The maiden fears, and fearing runsInto the charmed snare she shuns;And every man, in love or pride,Of his fate is never wide.
Will a woman's fan the ocean smooth?Or prayers the stony Parcae soothe,Or coax the thunder from its mark?Or tapers light the chaos dark?In spite of Virtue and the Muse,Nemesis will have her dues,And all our struggles and our toilsTighter wind the giant coils.
Words in this poem
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- parcae n.
- The Fates. See Fate, 4. [L.]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
- nemesis n.
- The goddess of retribution or vengeance; hence, retributive justice personified; divine vengeance. [L., fr. gr. Nomad.]
- tighter n.
- A ribbon or string used to draw clothes closer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nemesis 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, Nemesis, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/nemesis.html, id L07442.
Form and metre
Nemesis is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AABBCCDD cheekA · speakA · roamB · homeB · runsC · shunsC · prideD · wideD
- 2 AABBCCDD smoothA · sootheA · markB · darkB · museC · duesC · toilsD · coilsD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Already blushes on thy cheek | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| The bosom thought which thou must speak; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The bird, how far it haply roam | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| By cloud or isle, is flying home; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The maiden fears, and fearing runs | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Into the charmed snare she shuns; | 8 | ····˘··· |
| And every man, in love or pride, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of his fate is never wide. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Will a woman's fan the ocean smooth? | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| Or prayers the stony Parcae soothe, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or coax the thunder from its mark? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or tapers light the chaos dark? | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In spite of Virtue and the Muse, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nemesis will have her dues, | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| And all our struggles and our toils | 8 | ··//˘·/· |
| Tighter wind the giant coils. | 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.