Indifference
"With calm indifference good and evil bear:"So saith the sage, and so the world replies;But not too wisely—'tis not my device;Pleasures and pains,—my comfort and my care—Must leave their impress, both of ill and good;My soul is not a flood,Equally moved, when a sweet infant throwsO'er me a scattered rose,As when the whirlwind bringsDown from the forest a torn trunk, and flingsIt furiously upon my wanderings.
Words in this poem
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Indifference is in the public domain. This text is taken from Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet, by Sir John Bowring (London: Trübner & Co., 1866), Internet Archive, the John Bowring 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: Sándor Petőfi, Indifference, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/indifference.html, id L29814.
Form and metre
Indifference is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 55% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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--ABBCCDDD bearA · replies · device · careA · goodB · floodB · throwsC · roseC · bringsD · flingsD · wanderingsD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "With calm indifference good and evil bear:" | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··/· |
| So saith the sage, and so the world replies; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But not too wisely—'tis not my device; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Pleasures and pains,—my comfort and my care— | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Must leave their impress, both of ill and good; | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| My soul is not a flood, | 6 | ······ |
| Equally moved, when a sweet infant throws | 10 | /˘˘····/˘· |
| O'er me a scattered rose, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| As when the whirlwind brings | 6 | ···/·· |
| Down from the forest a torn trunk, and flings | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| It furiously upon my wanderings. | 11 | ·/˘˘˘···/˘˘ |
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.