The Precept of Silence
I know you: solitary griefs,Desolate passions, aching hours!I know you: tremulous beliefs,Agonized hopes, and ashen flowers!
The winds are sometimes sad to me;The starry spaces, full of fear:Mine is the sorrow on the sea,And mine the sigh of places drear.
Some players upon plaintive stringsPublish their wistfulness abroad:I have not spoken of these things,Save to one man, and unto God.
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- ashen a.
- Of or pertaining to the ash tree. [See Ash, the tree.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Precept of Silence 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 Precept of Silence, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/the-precept-of-silence.html, id L12474.
Form and metre
The Precept of Silence is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 griefs · hoursA · beliefs · flowersA
- 2 ABAB meA · fearB · seaA · drearB
- 3 A-A- stringsA · abroad · thingsA · god
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I know you: solitary griefs, | 8 | ···/˘·˘· |
| Desolate passions, aching hours! | 9 | /˘˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| I know you: tremulous beliefs, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Agonized hopes, and ashen flowers! | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| The winds are sometimes sad to me; | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| The starry spaces, full of fear: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Mine is the sorrow on the sea, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And mine the sigh of places drear. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some players upon plaintive strings | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Publish their wistfulness abroad: | 8 | /˘·/˘˘˘/ |
| I have not spoken of these things, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Save to one man, and unto God. | 8 | ········ |
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.