Only a Word
Till our world, so sad and weary,Finds the balmy rest of peace--Peace to silence all her discords--Peace till war and crime shall cease.
Peace to fall like gentle showers,Or on parchéd flowers dew,Till our hearts proclaim with gladness:Lo, He maketh all things new.
Words in this poem
- balmy a.
- Having the qualities of balm; odoriferous; aromatic; assuaging; soothing; refreshing; mild.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Only a Word is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #679; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Only a Word, in Poems (1854–1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #679, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/harper-poems/only-a-word.html, id L10627.
Form and metre
Only a Word is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See 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 -A-A weary · peaceA · discords · ceaseA
- 2 -A-A showers · dewA · gladness · newA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Till our world, so sad and weary, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Finds the balmy rest of peace-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Peace to silence all her discords-- | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Peace till war and crime shall cease. | 7 | ······· |
| Peace to fall like gentle showers, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Or on parchéd flowers dew, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Till our hearts proclaim with gladness: | 9 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Lo, He maketh all things new. | 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.