Hypocrites
Who comes and saith: 'A Tyrant, lo, am I!'And, 'I am Antichrist!' what man will swear?The crafty rogue, hiding his poisonous ware,Sells you what slays your soul, for sanctity.Cheats, brigands, prostitutes, and all that fry,Not having fashioned so devout a snare,Appear worse sinners than perhaps they are;For where the craft's small, small's the villainy;You're on your guard. The meek SamaritanMakes way before those guileful Pharisees,Though God assigned to him the higher place.Not words nor wonders prove a virtuous man,But deeds and acts. How many deitiesHath this false standard given the human race!
Words in this poem
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- antichrist n.
- A denier or opponent of Christ. Specif.: A great antagonist, person or power, expected to precede Christ's second coming.
- samaritan a.
- Of or pertaining to Samaria, in Palestine. [L. Samaritanus.]
- guileful a.
- Full of guile; characterized by cunning, deceit, or treachery; guilty.
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hypocrites is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Michelangelo Buonarroti, Hypocrites, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/hypocrites.html, id L15252.
Form and metre
Hypocrites is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABB-AB--C-DC-D iA · swearB · wareB · sanctity · fryA · snareB · are · villainy · samaritanC · pharisees · placeD · manC · deities · raceD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who comes and saith: 'A Tyrant, lo, am I!' | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And, 'I am Antichrist!' what man will swear? | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| The crafty rogue, hiding his poisonous ware, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Sells you what slays your soul, for sanctity. | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Cheats, brigands, prostitutes, and all that fry, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Not having fashioned so devout a snare, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Appear worse sinners than perhaps they are; | 10 | ˘/·/˘·˘/·· |
| For where the craft's small, small's the villainy; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| You're on your guard. The meek Samaritan | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Makes way before those guileful Pharisees, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Though God assigned to him the higher place. | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Not words nor wonders prove a virtuous man, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But deeds and acts. How many deities | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Hath this false standard given the human race! | 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.