Futility
Oh, I have tried to laugh the pain away,Let new flames brush my love-springs like a feather.But the old fever seizes me to-day,As sickness grips a soul in wretched weather.I have given up myself to every urge,With not a care of precious powers spent,Have bared my body to the strangest scourge,To soothe and deaden my heart’s unhealing rent.But you have torn a nerve out of my frame,A gut that no physician can replace,And reft my life of happiness and aim.Oh what new purpose shall I now embrace?What substance hold, what lovely form pursue,When my thought burns through everything to you?
Words in this poem
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- reft n.
- A chink; a rift. See Rift. Rom. of R.
- 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
Futility is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harlem shadows, Project Gutenberg ebook #64989; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Claude McKay, Futility, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/futility.html, id L01409.
Form and metre
Futility is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG awayA · featherB · dayA · weatherB · urgeC · spentD · scourgeC · rentD · frameE · replaceF · aimE · embraceF · pursueG · youG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, I have tried to laugh the pain away, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Let new flames brush my love-springs like a feather. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| But the old fever seizes me to-day, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| As sickness grips a soul in wretched weather. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| I have given up myself to every urge, | 10 | ··/··/·/˘· |
| With not a care of precious powers spent, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Have bared my body to the strangest scourge, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To soothe and deaden my heart’s unhealing rent. | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| But you have torn a nerve out of my frame, | 10 | ·········· |
| A gut that no physician can replace, | 10 | ····˘/˘··/ |
| And reft my life of happiness and aim. | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Oh what new purpose shall I now embrace? | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| What substance hold, what lovely form pursue, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| When my thought burns through everything to you? | 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.