Surprise
When the stunned soul can first lift tired eyesOn her changed world of ruin, waste and wrack,Ah, what a pang of aching sharp surpriseBrings all sweet memories of the lost past back,With wild self-pitying grief of one betrayed,Duped in a land of dreams where Truth is dead!
Are these the heavens that she deemed were kind?Is this the world that yesterday was fair?What painted images of folk half-blindBe these who pass her by, as vague as air?What go they seeking? there is naught to find.Let them come nigh and hearken her despair.
A mocking lie is all she once believed,And where her heart throbbed, is a cold dead stone.This is a doom we never preconceived,Yet now she cannot fancy it undone.Part of herself, part of the whole hard scheme,All else is but the shadow of a dream.
Words in this poem
- wrack n.
- Wreck; ruin; destruction. [OE. wrak wreck. See Wreck.]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Surprise 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, Surprise, in Poems, Volume I (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/surprise.html, id L01868.
Form and metre
Surprise is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 17% 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-- eyesA · wrackB · surpriseA · backB · betrayed · dead
- 2 ABABAB kindA · fairB · blindA · airB · findA · despairB
- 3 A-A-BB believedA · stone · preconceivedA · undone · schemeB · dreamB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When the stunned soul can first lift tired eyes | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| On her changed world of ruin, waste and wrack, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ah, what a pang of aching sharp surprise | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Brings all sweet memories of the lost past back, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With wild self-pitying grief of one betrayed, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Duped in a land of dreams where Truth is dead! | 10 | ·········· |
| Are these the heavens that she deemed were kind? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Is this the world that yesterday was fair? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| What painted images of folk half-blind | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Be these who pass her by, as vague as air? | 10 | ·········· |
| What go they seeking? there is naught to find. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Let them come nigh and hearken her despair. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| A mocking lie is all she once believed, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And where her heart throbbed, is a cold dead stone. | 10 | ·········· |
| This is a doom we never preconceived, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Yet now she cannot fancy it undone. | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Part of herself, part of the whole hard scheme, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| All else is but the shadow of a dream. | 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.