The Test
I hung my verses in the wind,Time and tide their faults may find.All were winnowed through and through,Five lines lasted sound and true;Five were smelted in a potThan the South more fierce and hot;These the siroc could not melt,Fire their fiercer flaming felt,And the meaning was more whiteThan July's meridian light.Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,Nor time unmake what poets know.Have you eyes to find the fiveWhich five hundred did survive?
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- unmake v. t.
- To destroy the form and qualities of; to deprive of being; to uncreate. [1st pref. un- + make.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Test 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 Test, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/the-test.html, id L07455.
Form and metre
The Test is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG windA · findA · throughB · trueB · potC · hotC · meltD · feltD · whiteE · lightE · snowF · knowF · fiveG · surviveG
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I hung my verses in the wind, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Time and tide their faults may find. | 7 | ······· |
| All were winnowed through and through, | 8 | ··/·˘··· |
| Five lines lasted sound and true; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Five were smelted in a pot | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Than the South more fierce and hot; | 7 | ······· |
| These the siroc could not melt, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Fire their fiercer flaming felt, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| And the meaning was more white | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Than July's meridian light. | 8 | ·˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, | 7 | /·/˘··· |
| Nor time unmake what poets know. | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Have you eyes to find the five | 7 | ······· |
| Which five hundred did survive? | 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.