Poets
Vain is the chiming of forgotten bellsThat the wind sways above a ruined shrine.Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwellsHunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine.
Light songs we breathe that perish with our breathOut of our lips that have not kissed the rod.They shall not live who have not tasted death.They only sing who are struck dumb by God.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poets is in the public domain. This text is taken from Trees, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #263; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Joyce Kilmer, Poets, in Trees and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #263, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kilmer-trees/poets.html, id L12908.
Form and metre
Poets is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 38% 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 ABAB bellsA · shrineB · dwellsA · wineB
- 2 ABAB breathA · rodB · deathA · godB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Vain is the chiming of forgotten bells | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| That the wind sways above a ruined shrine. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwells | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Hunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine. | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| Light songs we breathe that perish with our breath | 10 | ·····/˘·/· |
| Out of our lips that have not kissed the rod. | 10 | ··/······· |
| They shall not live who have not tasted death. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| They only sing who are struck dumb by God. | 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.