Born for Nought Else
Born for nought else, for nothing but for this,To watch the soft blood throbbing in her throat,To think how comely sweet her body is,And learn the poem of her face by rote.
Born for nought else but to attempt a rhymeThat shall describe her womanhood aright,And make her holy to the end of Time,And be my soul's acquittal in God's sight.
Born for nought else but to expressly markThe music of her dear delicious ways;Born but to perish meanly in the dark,Yet born to be the man to sing her praise.
Born for nought else: there is a spirit tellsMy lot's a King's, being born for nothing else.
Words in this poem
- rote v. t.
- To learn or repeat by rote.
- 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,]
- aright adv.
- Rightly; correctly; in a right way or form; without mistake or crime; as, to worship God aright. [Pref. a- + right.]
- acquittal n.
- The act of acquitting; discharge from debt or obligation; acquittance.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Born for Nought Else is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #40717; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, Born for Nought Else, in The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #40717, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-round-house/born-for-nought-else.html, id L25019.
Form and metre
Born for Nought Else is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 -A-A this · throatA · is · roteA
- 2 ABAB rhymeA · arightB · timeA · sightB
- 3 ABAB markA · waysB · darkA · praiseB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Born for nought else, for nothing but for this, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To watch the soft blood throbbing in her throat, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To think how comely sweet her body is, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And learn the poem of her face by rote. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Born for nought else but to attempt a rhyme | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| That shall describe her womanhood aright, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| And make her holy to the end of Time, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And be my soul's acquittal in God's sight. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Born for nought else but to expressly mark | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The music of her dear delicious ways; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Born but to perish meanly in the dark, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Yet born to be the man to sing her praise. | 10 | ·········· |
| Born for nought else: there is a spirit tells | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My lot's a King's, being born for nothing else. | 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.