Self-Reliance
Henceforth, please God, forever I foregoThe yoke of men's opinions. I will beLight-hearted as a bird, and live with God.I find him in the bottom of my heart,I hear continually his voice therein.
The little needle always knows the North,The little bird remembereth his note,And this wise Seer within me never errs.I never taught it what it teaches me;I only follow, when I act aright.
And when I am entombed in my place,Be it remembered of a single man,He never, though he dearly loved his race,For fear of human eyes swerved from his plan.
Oh what is Heaven but the fellowshipOf minds that each can stand against the worldBy its own meek and incorruptible will?
The days pass over meAnd I am still the same;The aroma of my life is goneWith the flower with which it came.
Words in this poem
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
- forego v. t.
- To quit; to relinquish; to leave. [See Forgo.]
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Self-Reliance 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, Self-Reliance, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/self-reliance.html, id L07591.
Form and metre
Self-Reliance is 21 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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.
- 3 ABAB placeA · manB · raceA · planB
- 5 -A-A me · sameA · gone · cameA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Henceforth, please God, forever I forego | 10 | //··˘/˘·˘/ |
| The yoke of men's opinions. I will be | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Light-hearted as a bird, and live with God. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I find him in the bottom of my heart, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I hear continually his voice therein. | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| The little needle always knows the North, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/···· |
| The little bird remembereth his note, | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘·· |
| And this wise Seer within me never errs. | 9 | ·······/· |
| I never taught it what it teaches me; | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| I only follow, when I act aright. | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| And when I am entombed in my place, | 9 | ····˘/··· |
| Be it remembered of a single man, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| He never, though he dearly loved his race, | 9 | ·/··/˘··· |
| For fear of human eyes swerved from his plan. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Oh what is Heaven but the fellowship | 9 | ···/··/˘· |
| Of minds that each can stand against the world | 10 | ·········· |
| By its own meek and incorruptible will? | 11 | ·····/˘˘˘˘· |
| The days pass over me | 6 | ······ |
| And I am still the same; | 6 | ······ |
| The aroma of my life is gone | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| With the flower with which it came. | 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.