Obligation
Hold your apron wideThat I may pour my gifts into it,So that scarcely shall your two arms hinder themFrom falling to the ground.
I would pour them upon youAnd cover you,For greatly do I feel this needOf giving you something,Even these poor things.Dearest of my Heart!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Obligation is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, Project Gutenberg ebook #1020; 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 Lowell, Obligation, in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-amy-sword-blades/obligation.html, id L08226.
Form and metre
Obligation is 10 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 2 AA---- youA · youA · need · something · things · heart
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hold your apron wide | 5 | ··/˘· |
| That I may pour my gifts into it, | 9 | ········· |
| So that scarcely shall your two arms hinder them | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| From falling to the ground. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I would pour them upon you | 7 | ······· |
| And cover you, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| For greatly do I feel this need | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of giving you something, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Even these poor things. | 5 | /˘··· |
| Dearest of my Heart! | 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.