Poet
Ever the Poet from the landSteers his bark and trims his sail;Right out to sea his courses stand,New worlds to find in pinnace frail.
To clothe the fiery thoughtIn simple words succeeds,For still the craft of genius isTo mask a king in weeds.
Words in this poem
- craft n.
- Strength; might; secret power. [AS. cr strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, fr]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poet 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, Poet, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/poet.html, id L07507.
Form and metre
Poet is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB landA · sailB · standA · frailB
- 2 -A-A thought · succeedsA · is · weedsA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ever the Poet from the land | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Steers his bark and trims his sail; | 7 | ······· |
| Right out to sea his courses stand, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| New worlds to find in pinnace frail. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To clothe the fiery thought | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| In simple words succeeds, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| For still the craft of genius is | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To mask a king in weeds. | 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.