To Leo XIII
Leo! Vicar of Christ,His voice, His love, His sword:Leo! Vicar of Christ,Earth's Angel of the Lord:
Leo! Father of all,Whose are all hearts to keep:Leo! Father of all,Chief Shepherd of the sheep:
Leo! Lover of men,Through all the labouring lands:Leo! Lover of men,Blest by thine holy hands:
Leo! Ruler of Rome,Heir of its royal race:Leo! Ruler of Rome,King of the Holy Place:
Leo! Leo the Great!Glory, and love, and fear,Leo! Leo the Great!We give thee, great and dear:
Leo! God grant this thing:Might some, so proud to beChildren of England, bringThine England back to thee!
Words in this poem
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Leo XIII 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, To Leo XIII, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/to-leo-xiii.html, id L12521.
Form and metre
To Leo XIII is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 ABAB christA · swordB · christA · lordB
- 2 ABAB allA · keepB · allA · sheepB
- 3 ABAB menA · landsB · menA · handsB
- 4 ABAB romeA · raceB · romeA · placeB
- 5 ABAB greatA · fearB · greatA · dearB
- 6 ABAB thingA · beB · bringA · theeB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Leo! Vicar of Christ, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| His voice, His love, His sword: | 6 | ······ |
| Leo! Vicar of Christ, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Earth's Angel of the Lord: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Leo! Father of all, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Whose are all hearts to keep: | 6 | ······ |
| Leo! Father of all, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Chief Shepherd of the sheep: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Leo! Lover of men, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Through all the labouring lands: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Leo! Lover of men, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Blest by thine holy hands: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Leo! Ruler of Rome, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Heir of its royal race: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Leo! Ruler of Rome, | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| King of the Holy Place: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Leo! Leo the Great! | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Glory, and love, and fear, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Leo! Leo the Great! | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| We give thee, great and dear: | 6 | ······ |
| Leo! God grant this thing: | 6 | /˘···· |
| Might some, so proud to be | 6 | ······ |
| Children of England, bring | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Thine England back to thee! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.