Brotherhood
The crest and crowning of all good,Life’s final star, is Brotherhood;For it will bring again to EarthHer long-lost Poesy and Mirth;Will send new light on every face,A kingly power upon the race.And till it come, we men are slaves,And travel downward to the dust of graves.
Come, clear the way, then, clear the way:Blind creeds and kings have had their day.Break the dead branches from the path:Our hope is in the aftermath--Our hope is in heroic men,Star-led to build the world again.To this Event the ages ran:Make way for Brotherhood--make way for Man.
Words in this poem
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Brotherhood is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, Brotherhood, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/brotherhood.html, id L24738.
Form and metre
Brotherhood is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDD goodA · brotherhoodA · earthB · mirthB · faceC · raceC · slavesD · gravesD
- 2 AABBCCDD wayA · dayA · pathB · aftermathB · menC · againC · ranD · manD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The crest and crowning of all good, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Life’s final star, is Brotherhood; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For it will bring again to Earth | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Her long-lost Poesy and Mirth; | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Will send new light on every face, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A kingly power upon the race. | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| And till it come, we men are slaves, | 8 | ········ |
| And travel downward to the dust of graves. | 9 | ·/˘/····· |
| Come, clear the way, then, clear the way: | 8 | ········ |
| Blind creeds and kings have had their day. | 8 | ········ |
| Break the dead branches from the path: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Our hope is in the aftermath-- | 8 | /····/˘· |
| Our hope is in heroic men, | 8 | /···˘/˘· |
| Star-led to build the world again. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To this Event the ages ran: | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Make way for Brotherhood--make way for Man. | 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.