To Be, or Not to Be
Accursed was the hour—brim-full of curses,Which summoned me "to be"—And told my mother in her hour of anguish,"A son is born to thee."O poetry! thou spider!That, in thy treacherous web, entanglest men,And stabbing their hearts' centre,Look'st pitiless upon their writhing pain.
Yes! thou hast drunk insatiate of my blood,Thou poison-spitting spider!Is thy web tearable?—then I will tear it:Why—why should I abide here?Strongly tho' I am held,And thou with fetters all my limbs art clasping,I feel my growing strength,And it shall free my chained heart from thy grasping.
I will not feed the spider with my blood,As I have done till now,While tears of shame were running down my cheeks,And sorrow stamped my brow.What shall I seek—fame? Nay!Fame is a nothingness—an idle name;I will not waste my powersTo find—what found were less than nothing—fame!
I with the vulgar herd down life's dull riverWill unconcernedly swim;The fates that keep the fool from rocks and dangersMay care for me as him.I said—for fame be careless—Seek in tranquillity's repose thy bliss,And if thou chance to find it,'Tis the best blessing of a world like this.
Shall I be silent ever,—my existenceA voiceless instrument, to hangUpon the wall where never more shall vibrateIts melancholy clang?Silent in weal or woe,Smitten with helplessness! O no! the wave,When by the whirlwind shaken,Cannot be still and voiceless as the grave.
Spirit of poetry! I cannot smite thee,I cannot smite thee dumb;Spite of myself my inner heart is speaking,Its passionate bursts will come;They will come thundering, whetherHeard or not heard, in accents loud and rude,For I must speak, must sing,While breath inspires my life, or passion warms my blood.
Words in this poem
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- insatiate a.
- Insatiable; as, insatiate thirst. [L. insatiatus.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- voiceless a.
- Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
- clang v. t.
- To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [L. clangere; akin to Gr. clank.]
- thundering a.
- Emitting thunder.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Be, or Not to Be 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, To Be, or Not to Be, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/to-be-or-not-to-be.html, id L29845.
Form and metre
To Be, or Not to Be is 48 lines in 6 stanzas of 8 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---- curses · beA · anguish · theeA · spider · men · centre · pain
- 2 -----A-A blood · spider · it · here · held · claspingA · strength · graspingA
- 3 -A-A-B-B blood · nowA · cheeks · browA · nay · nameB · powers · fameB
- 4 -A-ABB-B river · swimA · dangers · himA · carelessB · blissB · it · thisB
- 5 -A-A-B-B existence · hangA · vibrate · clangA · woe · waveB · shaken · graveB
- 6 -ABA--B- thee · dumbA · speakingB · comeA · whether · rude · singB · blood
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Accursed was the hour—brim-full of curses, | 10 | ····/···/˘ |
| Which summoned me "to be"— | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| And told my mother in her hour of anguish, | 11 | ···/˘··/·/˘ |
| "A son is born to thee." | 6 | ······ |
| O poetry! thou spider! | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| That, in thy treacherous web, entanglest men, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| And stabbing their hearts' centre, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Look'st pitiless upon their writhing pain. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Yes! thou hast drunk insatiate of my blood, | 11 | ····˘/˘˘··· |
| Thou poison-spitting spider! | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Is thy web tearable?—then I will tear it: | 11 | ··········· |
| Why—why should I abide here? | 7 | ····˘/· |
| Strongly tho' I am held, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And thou with fetters all my limbs art clasping, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| I feel my growing strength, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And it shall free my chained heart from thy grasping. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| I will not feed the spider with my blood, | 9 | ·····/··· |
| As I have done till now, | 6 | ······ |
| While tears of shame were running down my cheeks, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And sorrow stamped my brow. | 7 | ·/˘·˘·· |
| What shall I seek—fame? Nay! | 6 | ······ |
| Fame is a nothingness—an idle name; | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| I will not waste my powers | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To find—what found were less than nothing—fame! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I with the vulgar herd down life's dull river | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Will unconcernedly swim; | 7 | ······· |
| The fates that keep the fool from rocks and dangers | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| May care for me as him. | 6 | ······ |
| I said—for fame be careless— | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Seek in tranquillity's repose thy bliss, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| And if thou chance to find it, | 7 | ······· |
| 'Tis the best blessing of a world like this. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Shall I be silent ever,—my existence | 10 | ···/˘/·˘/˘ |
| A voiceless instrument, to hang | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Upon the wall where never more shall vibrate | 10 | ·····/··/˘ |
| Its melancholy clang? | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| Silent in weal or woe, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Smitten with helplessness! O no! the wave, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| When by the whirlwind shaken, | 7 | ···/·/˘ |
| Cannot be still and voiceless as the grave. | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Spirit of poetry! I cannot smite thee, | 9 | /·/˘·˘/·· |
| I cannot smite thee dumb; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Spite of myself my inner heart is speaking, | 11 | ···/·/˘··/˘ |
| Its passionate bursts will come; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| They will come thundering, whether | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Heard or not heard, in accents loud and rude, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| For I must speak, must sing, | 6 | ······ |
| While breath inspires my life, or passion warms my blood. | 12 | ··˘/···/˘··· |
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.