The Rosary
Not on the lute, nor harp of many stringsShall all men praise the Master of all song.Our life is brief, one saith, and art is long;And skilled must be the laureates of kings.Silent, O lips that utter foolish things!Rest, awkward fingers striking all notes wrong!How from your toil shall issue, white and strong,Music like that God's chosen poet sings?
There is one harp that any hand can play,And from its strings what harmonies arise!There is one song that any mouth can say, --A song that lingers when all singing dies.When on their beads our Mother's children prayImmortal music charms the grateful skies.
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,]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Rosary 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, The Rosary, in Trees and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #263, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kilmer-trees/the-rosary.html, id L12901.
Form and metre
The Rosary is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 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 ABBAABBA stringsA · songB · longB · kingsA · thingsA · wrongB · strongB · singsA
- 2 ABABAB playA · ariseB · sayA · diesB · prayA · skiesB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not on the lute, nor harp of many strings | 9 | ·······/· |
| Shall all men praise the Master of all song. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Our life is brief, one saith, and art is long; | 10 | /········· |
| And skilled must be the laureates of kings. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Silent, O lips that utter foolish things! | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Rest, awkward fingers striking all notes wrong! | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| How from your toil shall issue, white and strong, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Music like that God's chosen poet sings? | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| There is one harp that any hand can play, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And from its strings what harmonies arise! | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
| There is one song that any mouth can say, -- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A song that lingers when all singing dies. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| When on their beads our Mother's children pray | 10 | ····//˘/˘· |
| Immortal music charms the grateful skies. | 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.