The Prisoner
I lash and writhe against my prison bars,And watch with sullen eyes the gaping crowd . .Give me my freedom and the burning stars,The hollow sky, and crags of moonlit cloud!
Once I might range across the trackless plain,And roar with joy, until the desert airAnd wide horizons echoed it amain:I feared no foe, for I was monarch there!
I saw my shadow on the parching sand,When the hot sun had kissed the mountain's rim;And when the moon rose o'er long wastes of land,I sought my prey by some still river's brim;
And with me my fierce love, my tawny mate,Meet mother of strong cubs, meet lion's bride . .We made our lair in regions desolate,The solitude of wildernesses wide.
They slew her . . . and I watched the life-blood flowFrom her torn flank, and her proud eyes grow dim:I howled her dirge above her while the low,Red moon clomb up the black horizon's rim.
Me, they entrapped . . . cowards! They did not dareTo fight, as brave men do, without disguise,And face my unleashed rage! The hidden snareWas their device to win an untamed prize.
I am a captive . . . not for me the vast,White dome of sky above the blinding sand,The sweeping rapture of the desert blastAcross long ranges of untrodden land!
Yet still they fetter not my thought! In dreamsI, desert-born, tread the hot wastes once more,Quench my deep thirst in cool, untainted streams,And shake the darkness with my kingly roar!
Words in this poem
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
- trackless a.
- Having no track; marked by no footsteps; untrodden; as, a trackless desert.
- amain adv.
- With might; with full force; vigorously; violently; exceedingly. [Pref. a- + main. See 2d Main, n.]
- parching a.
- Scorching; burning; drying.
- lair n.
- A place in which to lie or rest; especially, the bed or couch of a wild beast. [OE. leir, AS. leger; akin to D. leger, G. lager couch, lair, OHG. laga, Goth. ligrs, and to E. lie. See Lie to be prostrate, and cf. Layer, Leaguer.]
- dirge n.
- A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. [Contraction of Lat. dirige, direct thou (imperative of dirigere), the first word of a funeral hymn (Lat. transl. of Psalm v. 8) beginning, "Dirige, Domine, in c]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Prisoner 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 Prisoner, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-prisoner.html, id L29435.
Form and metre
The Prisoner is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAB barsA · crowdB · starsA · cloudB
- 2 ABAB plainA · airB · amainA · thereB
- 3 ABAB sandA · rimB · landA · brimB
- 4 ABAB mateA · brideB · desolateA · wideB
- 5 ABAB flowA · dimB · lowA · rimB
- 6 ABAB dareA · disguiseB · snareA · prizeB
- 7 ABAB vastA · sandB · blastA · landB
- 8 ABAB dreamsA · moreB · streamsA · roarB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I lash and writhe against my prison bars, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And watch with sullen eyes the gaping crowd . . | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Give me my freedom and the burning stars, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The hollow sky, and crags of moonlit cloud! | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Once I might range across the trackless plain, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| And roar with joy, until the desert air | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And wide horizons echoed it amain: | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| I feared no foe, for I was monarch there! | 10 | ·······/·· |
| I saw my shadow on the parching sand, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| When the hot sun had kissed the mountain's rim; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And when the moon rose o'er long wastes of land, | 10 | ·········· |
| I sought my prey by some still river's brim; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And with me my fierce love, my tawny mate, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Meet mother of strong cubs, meet lion's bride . . | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| We made our lair in regions desolate, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The solitude of wildernesses wide. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘· |
| They slew her . . . and I watched the life-blood flow | 10 | ·········· |
| From her torn flank, and her proud eyes grow dim: | 10 | ·········· |
| I howled her dirge above her while the low, | 10 | ·········· |
| Red moon clomb up the black horizon's rim. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Me, they entrapped . . . cowards! They did not dare | 10 | ··˘//˘···· |
| To fight, as brave men do, without disguise, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And face my unleashed rage! The hidden snare | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| Was their device to win an untamed prize. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| I am a captive . . . not for me the vast, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| White dome of sky above the blinding sand, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The sweeping rapture of the desert blast | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Across long ranges of untrodden land! | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Yet still they fetter not my thought! In dreams | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I, desert-born, tread the hot wastes once more, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Quench my deep thirst in cool, untainted streams, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And shake the darkness with my kingly roar! | 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.