The Suicide
For fifty years,Cruel, insatiable Old World,You have punched me over the heartTill you made me cough blood.The few paltry things I gatheredYou snatched out of my hands.You have knocked the cup from my thirsty lips.You have laughed at my hunger of body and soul.
You look at me now and think,"He is still strong,There ought to be twenty more years of good punching there.At the end of that time he will be old and broken,Not able to strike back,But cringing and crying for leaveTo live a little longer."
Those twenty, pitiful, extra yearsWould please you more than the fifty past,Would they not, Old World?Well, I hold them up before your greedy eyes,And snatch them away as I laugh in your face,Ha! Ha!Bang--!Sol, Sol, mighty lord of the tropic zone,
Words in this poem
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Suicide is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, The Suicide, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/the-suicide-2.html, id L08306.
Form and metre
The Suicide is 23 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ---AA--- years · world · heart · bloodA · gatheredA · hands · lips · soul
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| For fifty years, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Cruel, insatiable Old World, | 8 | /˘˘/˘˘·· |
| You have punched me over the heart | 8 | ········ |
| Till you made me cough blood. | 6 | ······ |
| The few paltry things I gathered | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| You snatched out of my hands. | 7 | ··˘···· |
| You have knocked the cup from my thirsty lips. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| You have laughed at my hunger of body and soul. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| You look at me now and think, | 7 | ······· |
| "He is still strong, | 4 | ···· |
| There ought to be twenty more years of good punching there. | 13 | ····/˘····/˘· |
| At the end of that time he will be old and broken, | 13 | ···········/˘ |
| Not able to strike back, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But cringing and crying for leave | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| To live a little longer." | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Those twenty, pitiful, extra years | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Would please you more than the fifty past, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Would they not, Old World? | 5 | ····· |
| Well, I hold them up before your greedy eyes, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And snatch them away as I laugh in your face, | 11 | ···˘/······ |
| Ha! Ha! | 2 | ·· |
| Bang--! | 1 | · |
| Sol, Sol, mighty lord of the tropic zone, | 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.