Life and Art
Not while the fever of the blood is strong,The heart throbs loud, the eyes are veiled, no lessWith passion than with tears, the Muse shall blessThe poet-soul to help and soothe with song.Not then she bids his trembling lips expressThe aching gladness, the voluptuous pain.Life is his poem then; flesh, sense, and brainOne full-stringed lyre attuned to happiness.But when the dream is done, the pulses fail,The day's illusion, with the day's sun set,He, lonely in the twilight, sees the paleDivine Consoler, featured like Regret,Enter and clasp his hand and kiss his brow.Then his lips ope to sing--as mine do now.
Words in this poem
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- 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,]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- consoler n.
- One who gives consolation.
- featured a.
- Shaped; fashioned.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Life and Art is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #3295; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emma Lazarus, Life and Art, in Admetus, and Other Poems (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/life-and-art.html, id L01928.
Form and metre
Life and Art is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBABCCBDEDEFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABBABCCBDEDEFF strongA · lessB · blessB · songA · expressB · painC · brainC · happinessB · failD · setE · paleD · regretE · browF · nowF
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 while the fever of the blood is strong, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The heart throbs loud, the eyes are veiled, no less | 10 | ·········· |
| With passion than with tears, the Muse shall bless | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The poet-soul to help and soothe with song. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Not then she bids his trembling lips express | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The aching gladness, the voluptuous pain. | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Life is his poem then; flesh, sense, and brain | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| One full-stringed lyre attuned to happiness. | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| But when the dream is done, the pulses fail, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The day's illusion, with the day's sun set, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| He, lonely in the twilight, sees the pale | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Divine Consoler, featured like Regret, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Enter and clasp his hand and kiss his brow. | 10 | /˘········ |
| Then his lips ope to sing--as mine do now. | 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.