Self-Torment
The days pass by, empty of thought and will:His thought grows stagnant at its very springs,With every channel on the world of thingsDammed up, and thus, by its long standing still,Poisons itself and sickens to decay.All his high love for her, his fair desire,Loses its light; and a dull rancorous fire,Burning darkness and bitterness that preyUpon his heart are left. His spirit burnsSometimes with hatred, or the hatred turnsTo a fierce lust for her, more cruel than hate,Till he is weary wrestling with its force:And evermore she haunts him, early and late,As pitilessly as an old remorse.
Words in this poem
- rancorous a.
- Full of rancor; evincing, or caused by, rancor; deeply malignant; implacably spiteful or malicious; intensely virulent. [OF. rancuros.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Self-Torment is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, Self-Torment, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/self-torment.html, id L22005.
Form and metre
Self-Torment is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACDDCEEFGFG. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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.
- 1 ABBACDDCEEFGFG willA · springsB · thingsB · stillA · decayC · desireD · fireD · preyC · burnsE · turnsE · hateF · forceG · lateF · remorseG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The days pass by, empty of thought and will: | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| His thought grows stagnant at its very springs, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With every channel on the world of things | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Dammed up, and thus, by its long standing still, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Poisons itself and sickens to decay. | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| All his high love for her, his fair desire, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Loses its light; and a dull rancorous fire, | 10 | /˘·····/˘/ |
| Burning darkness and bitterness that prey | 10 | /˘/˘·/˘˘·· |
| Upon his heart are left. His spirit burns | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sometimes with hatred, or the hatred turns | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| To a fierce lust for her, more cruel than hate, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Till he is weary wrestling with its force: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And evermore she haunts him, early and late, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| As pitilessly as an old remorse. | 10 | ········˘/ |
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.