The Poet (Iv. 2)
Ere the poet summoned isTo Apollo's holy sacrificeIn the world's empty caresEngrossed is half-hearted he.
His holy lyre silent isAnd cold sleep his soul locks in;And of the world's puny children,Of all puniest perhaps is he.
Yet no sooner the heavenly wordHis keen ear hath reached,Than up trembles the singer's soulLike unto an awakened eagle.
The world's pastimes him now wearyAnd mortals' gossip now he shunsTo the feet of popular idolHis lofty head bends not he.
Wild and stern, rushes he,Of tumult full and sound,To the shores of desert wave,Into the widely-whispering wood.
Words in this poem
- puny a.
- Imperfectly developed in size or vigor; small and feeble; inferior; petty. [F. puîté younger, later born, OF. puisné; puis afterwards (L. post; see Post-) + né born, L. natus. See Natal, and cf. Puisne.]
- idol n.
- An image or representation of anything. [OE. idole, F. idole, L. idolum, fr. Gr. Wit, and cf. Eidolon.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poet (Iv. 2) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems With Introduction and Notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #54991; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alexander Pushkin, The Poet (Iv. 2), in Poems (1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54991, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pushkin-poems/the-poet-iv-2.html, id L25548.
Form and metre
The Poet (Iv. 2) is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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.
- 3 --AA word · reached · soulA · eagleA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ere the poet summoned is | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| To Apollo's holy sacrifice | 9 | ·˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| In the world's empty cares | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Engrossed is half-hearted he. | 7 | ˘/··/˘· |
| His holy lyre silent is | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And cold sleep his soul locks in; | 7 | ······· |
| And of the world's puny children, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Of all puniest perhaps is he. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Yet no sooner the heavenly word | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| His keen ear hath reached, | 5 | ····· |
| Than up trembles the singer's soul | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Like unto an awakened eagle. | 9 | ····˘/˘/˘ |
| The world's pastimes him now weary | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| And mortals' gossip now he shuns | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To the feet of popular idol | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| His lofty head bends not he. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Wild and stern, rushes he, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of tumult full and sound, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To the shores of desert wave, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Into the widely-whispering wood. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
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.