The Warning
Beware! The Israelite of old, who toreThe lion in his path,--when, poor and blind,He saw the blessed light of heaven no more,Shorn of his noble strength and forced to grindIn prison, and at last led forth to beA pander to Philistine revelry,--
Upon the pillars of the temple laidHis desperate hands, and in its overthrowDestroyed himself, and with him those who madeA cruel mockery of his sightless woe;The poor, blind Slave, the scoff and jest of all,Expired, and thousands perished in the fall!
There is a poor, blind Samson in this land,Shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel,Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand,And shake the pillars of this Commonweal,Till the vast Temple of our liberties.A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies.
Words in this poem
- beware v. t.
- To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
- israelite n.
- A descendant of Israel, or Jacob; a Hebrew; a Jew. [L. Israëlites, Gr. Yisra, i. e., champion of God; sarah to fight + God.]
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
- philistine n.
- A native or an inhabitant of ancient Philistia, a coast region of southern Palestine. [L. Philistinus, Heb. Phlishthi, pl. Phlishthim.]
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
- sightless a.
- Wanting sight; without sight; blind.
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Warning is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Warning, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-warning.html, id L17514.
Form and metre
The Warning is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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-- toreA · blindB · moreA · grindB · be · revelry
- 2 ABABCC laidA · overthrowB · madeA · woeB · allC · fallC
- 3 ABABCC landA · steelB · handA · commonwealB · libertiesC · liesC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beware! The Israelite of old, who tore | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| The lion in his path,--when, poor and blind, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| He saw the blessed light of heaven no more, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Shorn of his noble strength and forced to grind | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In prison, and at last led forth to be | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A pander to Philistine revelry,-- | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘˘ |
| Upon the pillars of the temple laid | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| His desperate hands, and in its overthrow | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Destroyed himself, and with him those who made | 10 | ˘/˘/······ |
| A cruel mockery of his sightless woe; | 10 | ·//˘˘··/˘· |
| The poor, blind Slave, the scoff and jest of all, | 10 | ·········· |
| Expired, and thousands perished in the fall! | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel, | 10 | ·········· |
| Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And shake the pillars of this Commonweal, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Till the vast Temple of our liberties. | 11 | ···/˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies. | 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.