The Poet
There was strength in him and the weak won freely from it,There was an infinite pity, and hard hearts grew soft thereby,There was truth so unshrinking and starry-shining,Men read clear by its light and learned to scorn a lie.
His were songs so full of a wholesome laughterThose whose courage was ashen found it once more aflame,His was a child-like faith and wandering feet were guided,His was a hope so joyous despair was put to shame.
His was the delicate insight and his the poignant visionWhereby the world might learn what wine-lipped roses know,What a drift of rain might lisp on a gray sea-dawning,Or a pale spring of the woodland babble low.
He builded a castle of dream and a palace of rainbow fancy,And the starved souls of his fellows lived in them and grew glad;—And yet—there were those who mocked the gifts of his generous giving,And some—but he smiled and forgave them—who deemed him wholly mad!
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- ashen a.
- Of or pertaining to the ash tree. [See Ash, the tree.]
- aflame adv.
- Inflames; glowing with light or passion; ablaze. G. Eliot. [Pref. a- + flame.]
- insight n.
- A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; -- frequently used with into.
- poignant a.
- Pricking; piercing; sharp; pungent. [F., p. pr. of poindre to sting, fr. L. pungere to prick, sting. See Pungent.]
- lisp v. i.
- To pronounce the sibilant letter s imperfectly; to give s and z the sound of th; -- a defect common among children. [OE. lispen, lipsen, AS. wlisp stammering, lisping; akin to D. & OHG. lispen to lisp, G. lispeln, Sw. läspa, Dan. lespe.]
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poet is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, The Poet, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-poet.html, id L29444.
Form and metre
The Poet is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 it · therebyA · shining · lieA
- 2 -A-A laughter · aflameA · guided · shameA
- 3 -A-A vision · knowA · dawning · lowA
- 4 -A-A fancy · gladA · giving · madA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There was strength in him and the weak won freely from it, | 13 | ·········/˘·· |
| There was an infinite pity, and hard hearts grew soft thereby, | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| There was truth so unshrinking and starry-shining, | 12 | ········/˘/˘ |
| Men read clear by its light and learned to scorn a lie. | 12 | ············ |
| His were songs so full of a wholesome laughter | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Those whose courage was ashen found it once more aflame, | 13 | ··/˘·/˘····˘/ |
| His was a child-like faith and wandering feet were guided, | 13 | ·······/˘··/˘ |
| His was a hope so joyous despair was put to shame. | 13 | ·····/˘˘/···· |
| His was the delicate insight and his the poignant vision | 14 | ···/˘/····/˘/˘ |
| Whereby the world might learn what wine-lipped roses know, | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| What a drift of rain might lisp on a gray sea-dawning, | 13 | ···········/˘ |
| Or a pale spring of the woodland babble low. | 11 | ······/·/˘· |
| He builded a castle of dream and a palace of rainbow fancy, | 17 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘·/·/˘ |
| And the starved souls of his fellows lived in them and grew glad;— | 14 | ······/˘······ |
| And yet—there were those who mocked the gifts of his generous giving, | 15 | ···········/˘/˘ |
| And some—but he smiled and forgave them—who deemed him wholly mad! | 15 | ······˘/····/˘· |
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.