Sympathy
It comes not in such wise as she had deemed,Else might she still have clung to her despair.More tender, grateful than she could have dreamed,Fond hands passed pitying over brows and hair,And gentle words borne softly through the air,Calming her weary sense and wildered mind,By welcome, dear communion with her kind.
Ah! she forswore all words as empty lies;What speech could help, encourage, or repair?Yet when she meets these grave, indulgent eyes,Fulfilled with pity, simplest words are fair,Caressing, meaningless, that do not dareTo compensate or mend, but merely sootheWith hopeful visions after bitter Truth.
One who through conquered trouble had grown wise,To read the grief unspoken, unexpressed,The misery of the blank and heavy eyes,--Or through youth's infinite compassion guessedThe heavy burden,--such a one brought rest,And bade her lay aside her doubts and fears,While the hard pain dissolved in blessed tears.
Words in this poem
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
- 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.]
- hopeful a.
- Full of hope, or agreeable expectation; inclined to hope; expectant.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sympathy 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, Sympathy, in Poems, Volume I (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/sympathy.html, id L01872.
Form and metre
Sympathy is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas; the stanza is the Rhyme royal. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyme royal, 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 ABABBCC deemedA · despairB · dreamedA · hairB · airB · mindC · kindC
- 2 ABABB-- liesA · repairB · eyesA · fairB · dareB · soothe · truth
- 3 ABABBCC wiseA · unexpressedB · eyesA · guessedB · restB · fearsC · tearsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It comes not in such wise as she had deemed, | 10 | ·········· |
| Else might she still have clung to her despair. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| More tender, grateful than she could have dreamed, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Fond hands passed pitying over brows and hair, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| And gentle words borne softly through the air, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Calming her weary sense and wildered mind, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| By welcome, dear communion with her kind. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Ah! she forswore all words as empty lies; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| What speech could help, encourage, or repair? | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Yet when she meets these grave, indulgent eyes, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Fulfilled with pity, simplest words are fair, | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Caressing, meaningless, that do not dare | 10 | ˘/˘/˘˘···· |
| To compensate or mend, but merely soothe | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| With hopeful visions after bitter Truth. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| One who through conquered trouble had grown wise, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To read the grief unspoken, unexpressed, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The misery of the blank and heavy eyes,-- | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Or through youth's infinite compassion guessed | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘· |
| The heavy burden,--such a one brought rest, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And bade her lay aside her doubts and fears, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| While the hard pain dissolved in blessed tears. | 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.