Escape
She bared her spirit to her sorrow:On the circling hills the morrowTrembled, but it broke not forth:Winds blew from the snowy North.
My soul! my sorrow! What wind bloweth,Knows the wayless way, it goeth?But before all else, we knowDeath's way is the way to go.
She knew no more than that: she onlyKnew, that she was left and lonely.Left? But she had loved! And lone?She had loved! But love had gone.
So out into the wintry weatherSoul and sorrow fled together:On the moor day found her dead:Snow on hands, and heart, and head.
Words in this poem
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- wayless a.
- Having no road or path; pathless.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Escape is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, Escape, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/escape.html, id L12552.
Form and metre
Escape is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 AABB sorrowA · morrowA · forthB · northB
- 2 AABB blowethA · goethA · knowB · goB
- 3 AA-- onlyA · lonelyA · lone · gone
- 4 AABB weatherA · togetherA · deadB · headB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She bared her spirit to her sorrow: | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| On the circling hills the morrow | 9 | ··/˘˘··/˘ |
| Trembled, but it broke not forth: | 7 | /˘····· |
| Winds blew from the snowy North. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| My soul! my sorrow! What wind bloweth, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Knows the wayless way, it goeth? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But before all else, we know | 7 | ······· |
| Death's way is the way to go. | 7 | ······· |
| She knew no more than that: she only | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Knew, that she was left and lonely. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Left? But she had loved! And lone? | 7 | ······· |
| She had loved! But love had gone. | 7 | ······· |
| So out into the wintry weather | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Soul and sorrow fled together: | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| On the moor day found her dead: | 7 | ······· |
| Snow on hands, and heart, and head. | 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.