Impotens
If I were a woman of old,What prayers I would pray for you, dear;My pitiful tribute behold--Not a prayer, but a tear.
The pitiless order of things,Whose laws we may change not nor break,Alone I could face it--it wringsMy heart for your sake.
About this text
Impotens 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, Impotens, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/impotens.html, id L21534.
Form and metre
Impotens is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 100%).
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 ABAB oldA · dearB · beholdA · tearB
- 2 ABAB thingsA · breakB · wringsA · sakeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If I were a woman of old, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| What prayers I would pray for you, dear; | 8 | ········ |
| My pitiful tribute behold-- | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘/ |
| Not a prayer, but a tear. | 6 | ······ |
| The pitiless order of things, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Whose laws we may change not nor break, | 8 | ········ |
| Alone I could face it--it wrings | 8 | ˘/······ |
| My heart for your sake. | 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.