Orator
He who has no handsPerforce must use his tongue;Foxes are so cunningBecause they are not strong.
Words in this poem
- perforce v. t.
- To force; to compel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Orator 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, Orator, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/orator.html, id L07505.
Form and metre
Orator is 4 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 -AAA hands · tongueA · cunningA · strongA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He who has no hands | 5 | ····· |
| Perforce must use his tongue; | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Foxes are so cunning | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Because they are not strong. | 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.