The Park
The prosperous and beautifulTo me seem not to wearThe yoke of conscience masterful,Which galls me everywhere.
I cannot shake off the god;On my neck he makes his seat;I look at my face in the glass,--My eyes his eyeballs meet.
Enchanters! Enchantresses!Your gold makes you seem wise;The morning mist within your groundsMore proudly rolls, more softly lies.
Yet spake yon purple mountain,Yet said yon ancient wood,That Night or Day, that Love or Crime,Leads all souls to the Good.
Words in this poem
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- masterful a.
- Inclined to play the master; domineering; imperious; arbitrary.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Park 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, The Park, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/the-park.html, id L07407.
Form and metre
The Park is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% 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 -A-A beautiful · wearA · masterful · everywhereA
- 2 -A-A god · seatA · glass · meetA
- 3 -A-A enchantresses · wiseA · grounds · liesA
- 4 -A-A mountain · woodA · crime · goodA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The prosperous and beautiful | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| To me seem not to wear | 6 | ······ |
| The yoke of conscience masterful, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Which galls me everywhere. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I cannot shake off the god; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| On my neck he makes his seat; | 7 | ······· |
| I look at my face in the glass,-- | 8 | ········ |
| My eyes his eyeballs meet. | 6 | ···/·· |
| Enchanters! Enchantresses! | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| Your gold makes you seem wise; | 6 | ······ |
| The morning mist within your grounds | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| More proudly rolls, more softly lies. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Yet spake yon purple mountain, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Yet said yon ancient wood, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That Night or Day, that Love or Crime, | 8 | ········ |
| Leads all souls to the Good. | 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.