The Destroyer of a Soul
I hate you with a necessary hate.First, I sought patience: passionate was she:My patience turned in very scorn of me,That I should dare forgive a sin so great,As this, through which I sit disconsolate;Mourning for that live soul, I used to see;Soul of a saint, whose friend I used to be:Till you came by! a cold, corrupting, fate.
Why come you now? You, whom I cannot ceaseWith pure and perfect hate to hate? Go, ringThe death-bell with a deep, triumphant toll!Say you, my friend sits by me still? Ah, peace!Call you this thing my friend? this nameless thing?This living body, hiding its dead soul?
Words in this poem
- disconsolate n.
- Disconsolateness. Barrow.
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Destroyer of a Soul 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, The Destroyer of a Soul, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/the-destroyer-of-a-soul.html, id L12536.
Form and metre
The Destroyer of a Soul is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBA-BBA hateA · sheB · meB · greatA · disconsolate · seeB · beB · fateA
- 2 ABCABC ceaseA · ringB · tollC · peaceA · thingB · soulC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I hate you with a necessary hate. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| First, I sought patience: passionate was she: | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| My patience turned in very scorn of me, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That I should dare forgive a sin so great, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| As this, through which I sit disconsolate; | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Mourning for that live soul, I used to see; | 10 | /˘········ |
| Soul of a saint, whose friend I used to be: | 10 | ·········· |
| Till you came by! a cold, corrupting, fate. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Why come you now? You, whom I cannot cease | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With pure and perfect hate to hate? Go, ring | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| The death-bell with a deep, triumphant toll! | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Say you, my friend sits by me still? Ah, peace! | 10 | ·········· |
| Call you this thing my friend? this nameless thing? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| This living body, hiding its dead soul? | 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.