The Future
Clothed in white robes I see the Holy SireDescend to hold his court amid the bandOf shining saints and elders: at his handThe white immortal Lamb commands their choir.John ends his long lament for torments dire,Now Judah's lion rises to expandThe fatal book, and the first broken bandSends the white courier forth to work God's ire.The first fair spirits raimented in whiteGo out to meet him who on his white cloudComes heralded by horsemen white as snow.Ye black-stoled folk, be dumb, who hate the loudBlare of God's lifted angel-trumpets! Lo,The pure white dove puts the black crows to flight!
Words in this poem
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- dire a.
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens. [L. dirus; of uncertain origin.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- blare v. i.
- To sound loudly and somewhat harshly. [OE. blaren, bloren, to cry, woop; cf. G. plärren to bleat, D. blaren to bleat, cry, weep. Prob. an imitative word, but cf. also E. blast. Cf. Blore.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Future 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, The Future, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/the-future.html, id L15261.
Form and metre
The Future is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDEDEC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 57% 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 ABBAABBACDEDEC sireA · bandB · handB · choirA · direA · expandB · bandB · ireA · whiteC · cloudD · snowE · loudD · loE · flightC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Clothed in white robes I see the Holy Sire | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Descend to hold his court amid the band | 10 | ˘/····˘/·· |
| Of shining saints and elders: at his hand | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The white immortal Lamb commands their choir. | 11 | ··˘/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| John ends his long lament for torments dire, | 10 | ····˘/·/·· |
| Now Judah's lion rises to expand | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The fatal book, and the first broken band | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Sends the white courier forth to work God's ire. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The first fair spirits raimented in white | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Go out to meet him who on his white cloud | 10 | ·········· |
| Comes heralded by horsemen white as snow. | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Ye black-stoled folk, be dumb, who hate the loud | 10 | ·········· |
| Blare of God's lifted angel-trumpets! Lo, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| The pure white dove puts the black crows to flight! | 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.