From "Lavater"
Trust him little who doth raiseTo one height both great and small,And sets the sacred crown of praise,Smiling, on the head of all.
Trust him less who looks aroundTo censure all with scornful eyes,And in everything has foundSomething that he dare despise.
But for one who stands apart,Stirred by nought that can befall,With a cold indifferent heart,--Trust him least and last of all.
Words in this poem
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From "Lavater" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Legends and Lyrics. Part 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #2304; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Adelaide Anne Procter, From "Lavater", in Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2304, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/procter-legends-lyrics/from-lavater.html, id L21785.
Form and metre
From "Lavater" is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 raiseA · smallB · praiseA · allB
- 2 ABAB aroundA · eyesB · foundA · despiseB
- 3 ABAB apartA · befallB · heartA · allB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Trust him little who doth raise | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To one height both great and small, | 7 | ······· |
| And sets the sacred crown of praise, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Smiling, on the head of all. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Trust him less who looks around | 7 | ······· |
| To censure all with scornful eyes, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And in everything has found | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Something that he dare despise. | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| But for one who stands apart, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Stirred by nought that can befall, | 8 | ·˘····˘/ |
| With a cold indifferent heart,-- | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Trust him least and last of all. | 7 | ······· |
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.