To Louise Michel
I cannot take your road, Louise Michel,Priestess of Pity and of Vengeance--no:Down that amorphous gulf I cannot go--That gulf of Anarchy whose pit is Hell.Yet, sister, though my first word is farewell,Remember that I know your hidden woe;Have felt the grief that rends you blow on blow;Have knelt beside you in the murky cell.
You never followed hate (let this atone)Nor knew the wrongs of others from your own:Wild was the road, but Love has always led,So I am silent where I cannot praise;And here now at the parting of the ways,I lay a still hand lightly on your head.
Words in this poem
- priestess n.
- A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans. Abp.
- atone v. t.
- To set at one; to reduce to concord; to reconcile, as parties at variance; to appease.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Louise Michel 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, To Louise Michel, 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/to-louise-michel.html, id L24767.
Form and metre
To Louise Michel is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABBAABBA michelA · noB · goB · hellA · farewellA · woeB · blowB · cellA
- 2 AABCCB atoneA · ownA · ledB · praiseC · waysC · headB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot take your road, Louise Michel, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| Priestess of Pity and of Vengeance--no: | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Down that amorphous gulf I cannot go-- | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| That gulf of Anarchy whose pit is Hell. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Yet, sister, though my first word is farewell, | 10 | ·/˘······/ |
| Remember that I know your hidden woe; | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Have felt the grief that rends you blow on blow; | 10 | ·········· |
| Have knelt beside you in the murky cell. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| You never followed hate (let this atone) | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Nor knew the wrongs of others from your own: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Wild was the road, but Love has always led, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| So I am silent where I cannot praise; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And here now at the parting of the ways, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I lay a still hand lightly on your head. | 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.