Defeat
Defeat, my Defeat, my solitude and my aloofness;You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs,And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory.
Defeat, my Defeat, my self-knowledge and my defiance,Through you I know that I am yet young and swift of footAnd not to be trapped by withering laurels.And in you I have found alonenessAnd the joy of being shunned and scorned.
Defeat, my Defeat, my shining sword and shield,In your eyes I have readThat to be enthroned is to be enslaved,And to be understood is to be leveled down,And to be grasped is but to reach one's fullnessAnd like a ripe fruit to fall and be consumed.
Defeat, my Defeat, my bold companion,You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences,And none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings,And urging of seas,And of mountains that burn in the night,And you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul.
Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage,You and I shall laugh together with the storm,And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us,And we shall stand in the sun with a will,And we shall be dangerous.
Words in this poem
- defeat v. t.
- To undo; to disfigure; to destroy. [From F. défait, OF. desfait, p. p. ofe défaire, OF. desfaire, to undo; L. dis- + facere to do. See Feat, Fact, and cf. Disfashion.]
- aloofness n.
- State of being aloof. Rogers (1642).
- withering a.
- Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
- aloneness n.
- A state of being alone, or without company; solitariness.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Defeat is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Madman: His Parables and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #5616; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Kahlil Gibran, Defeat, in The Madman: His Parables and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5616, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gibran-madman/defeat.html, id L27304.
Form and metre
Defeat is 25 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
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.
- 4 -A-A-- companion · silencesA · wings · seasA · night · soul
- 5 --A-A courage · storm · usA · will · dangerousA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Defeat, my Defeat, my solitude and my aloofness; | 14 | ˘/·˘/·/˘···˘/˘ |
| You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs, | 12 | ··/˘····/˘/˘ |
| And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory. | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Defeat, my Defeat, my self-knowledge and my defiance, | 14 | ˘/·˘/··/˘··˘/˘ |
| Through you I know that I am yet young and swift of foot | 13 | ············· |
| And not to be trapped by withering laurels. | 11 | ······/˘˘/˘ |
| And in you I have found aloneness | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| And the joy of being shunned and scorned. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Defeat, my Defeat, my shining sword and shield, | 11 | ˘/·˘/·/˘··· |
| In your eyes I have read | 6 | ······ |
| That to be enthroned is to be enslaved, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And to be understood is to be leveled down, | 12 | ····˘/···/˘· |
| And to be grasped is but to reach one's fullness | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And like a ripe fruit to fall and be consumed. | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| Defeat, my Defeat, my bold companion, | 10 | ˘/·˘/··˘/˘ |
| You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences, | 13 | ··········/˘˘ |
| And none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings, | 14 | ··········/˘·· |
| And urging of seas, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And of mountains that burn in the night, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul. | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
| Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage, | 10 | ˘/·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| You and I shall laugh together with the storm, | 11 | ·····˘/˘··· |
| And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us, | 14 | ·˘/˘·········· |
| And we shall stand in the sun with a will, | 10 | ·········· |
| And we shall be dangerous. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
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.