Captivity
The lion remembers the forest,The lion in chains;To the bird that is captive a visionOf woodland remains.
One strains with his strength at the fetter,In impotent rage;One flutters in flights of a moment,And beats at the cage.
If the lion were loosed from the fetter,To wander again;He would seek the wide silence and shadowOf his jungle in vain.
He would rage in his fury, destroying;Let him rage, let him roam!Shall he traverse the pitiless mountain,Or swim through the foam?
If they opened the cage and the casement,And the bird flew away;He would come back at evening, heartbroken,A captive for aye.
Would come if his kindred had spared him,Free birds from afar--There was wrought what is stronger than ironIn fetter and bar.
I cannot remember my country,The land whence I came;Whence they brought me and chained me and made meNor wild thing nor tame.
This only I know of my country,This only repeat:--It was free as the forest, and sweeterThan woodland retreat.
When the chain shall at last be broken,The window set wide;And I step in the largeness and freedomOf sunlight outside;
Shall I wander in vain for my country?Shall I seek and not find?Shall I cry for the bars that encage me,The fetters that bind?
Words in this poem
- jungle n.
- A dense growth of brushwood, grasses, reeds, vines, etc.; an almost impenetrable thicket of trees, canes, and reedy vegetation, as in India, Africa, Australia, and Brazil. [Hind. jangal desert, forest, jungle; Skr. ja desert.]
- 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,]
- casement n.
- A window sash opening on hinges affixed to the upright side of the frame into which it is fitted. (Poetically) A window. [Shortened fr. encasement. See Incase 1st Case, and cf. Incasement.]
- heartbroken a.
- Overcome by crushing sorrow; deeply grieved.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- encage v. t.
- To confine in a cage; to coop up. [Pref. en- + cage: cf. F. encager.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Captivity is in the public domain. This text is taken from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #56974; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Levy, Captivity, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/captivity.html, id L21553.
Form and metre
Captivity is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 -A-A forest · chainsA · vision · remainsA
- 2 -A-A fetter · rageA · moment · cageA
- 3 -A-A fetter · againA · shadow · vainA
- 4 -A-A destroying · roamA · mountain · foamA
- 6 -A-A him · afarA · iron · barA
- 7 -A-A country · cameA · me · tameA
- 8 -A-A country · repeatA · sweeter · retreatA
- 9 -A-A broken · wideA · freedom · outsideA
- 10 -A-A country · findA · me · bindA
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The lion remembers the forest, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| The lion in chains; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| To the bird that is captive a vision | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| Of woodland remains. | 5 | ·/·˘/ |
| One strains with his strength at the fetter, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| In impotent rage; | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| One flutters in flights of a moment, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| And beats at the cage. | 5 | ····· |
| If the lion were loosed from the fetter, | 9 | ··/····/˘ |
| To wander again; | 5 | ·/˘˘/ |
| He would seek the wide silence and shadow | 10 | ·····/˘·/· |
| Of his jungle in vain. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| He would rage in his fury, destroying; | 10 | ·····/˘˘/˘ |
| Let him rage, let him roam! | 6 | ······ |
| Shall he traverse the pitiless mountain, | 9 | ··˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Or swim through the foam? | 5 | ····· |
| If they opened the cage and the casement, | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| And the bird flew away; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| He would come back at evening, heartbroken, | 10 | ·····/˘/·˘ |
| A captive for aye. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Would come if his kindred had spared him, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Free birds from afar-- | 5 | ···˘/ |
| There was wrought what is stronger than iron | 9 | ·····/˘·/ |
| In fetter and bar. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| I cannot remember my country, | 9 | ·˘/˘/˘·/˘ |
| The land whence I came; | 5 | ····· |
| Whence they brought me and chained me and made me | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor wild thing nor tame. | 5 | ····· |
| This only I know of my country, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| This only repeat:-- | 5 | ·/˘˘/ |
| It was free as the forest, and sweeter | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| Than woodland retreat. | 5 | ·/·˘/ |
| When the chain shall at last be broken, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The window set wide; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And I step in the largeness and freedom | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| Of sunlight outside; | 5 | ·/·// |
| Shall I wander in vain for my country? | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Shall I seek and not find? | 6 | ······ |
| Shall I cry for the bars that encage me, | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| The fetters that bind? | 5 | ·/˘·· |
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.