One Life, One Law
What do we know--what need we knowOf the great world to which we go?We peer into the tomb, and hark:Its walls are dim, its doors are dark.
Be still, O mourning heart, nor seekTo make the tongueless silence speak:Be still, be strong, nor wish to findTheir way who leave the world behind--Voices and forms forever goneInto the darkness of the dawn.
What is their wisdom, clear and deep?--That as men sow they surely reap,--That every thought, that every deed,Is sown into the soul for seed.They have no word we do not know,--Nor yet the cherubim aglowWith God: we know that virtue saves,--They know no more beyond the graves.
Words in this poem
- tongueless a.
- Having no tongue.
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- cherubim n.
- The Hebrew plural of Cherub.. Cf. Seraphim.
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
One Life, One Law 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, One Life, One Law, 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/one-life-one-law.html, id L24787.
Form and metre
One Life, One Law is 18 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB knowA · goA · harkB · darkB
- 2 AABBCC seekA · speakA · findB · behindB · goneC · dawnC
- 3 AABBCCDD deepA · reapA · deedB · seedB · knowC · aglowC · savesD · gravesD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What do we know--what need we know | 8 | ········ |
| Of the great world to which we go? | 8 | ········ |
| We peer into the tomb, and hark: | 8 | ········ |
| Its walls are dim, its doors are dark. | 8 | ········ |
| Be still, O mourning heart, nor seek | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To make the tongueless silence speak: | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Be still, be strong, nor wish to find | 8 | ········ |
| Their way who leave the world behind-- | 8 | ········ |
| Voices and forms forever gone | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| Into the darkness of the dawn. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| What is their wisdom, clear and deep?-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That as men sow they surely reap,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That every thought, that every deed, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Is sown into the soul for seed. | 8 | ········ |
| They have no word we do not know,-- | 8 | ········ |
| Nor yet the cherubim aglow | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| With God: we know that virtue saves,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| They know no more beyond the graves. | 8 | ········ |
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.