A Toast
Not your martyrs anointed of heaven--The ages are red where they trod--But the Hunted--the world's bitter leaven--Who smote at your imbecile God--
A being to pander and fawn to,To propitiate, flatter and dreadAs a thing that your souls are in pawn to,A Dealer who traffics the dead;
A Trader with greed never sated,Who barters the souls in his snares,That were trapped in the lusts he created,For incense and masses and prayers--
They are crushed in the coils of your halters;'Twere well--by the creeds ye have nursed--That ye send up a cry from your altars,A mass for the Martyrs Accursed;
A passionate prayer from reprievalFor the Brotherhood not understood--For the Heroes who died for the evil,Believing the evil was good.
To the Breakers, the Bold, the Despoilers,Who dreamed of a world over-thrown...They who died for the millions of toilers--Few--fronting the nations alone!
--To the Outlawed of men and the Branded,Whether hated or hating they fell--I pledge the devoted, red-handed,Unfaltering Heroes of Hell!
Words in this poem
- propitiate v. t.
- To appease to render favorable; to make propitious; to conciliate. [L. propitiatus, p. p. of propitiare to propitiate, fr. propitius favorable. See Propitious.]
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- reprieval n.
- Reprieve. Overbury.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Toast is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Ghetto, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #4332; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lola Ridge, A Toast, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/a-toast.html, id L20891.
Form and metre
A Toast is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 heavenA · trodB · leavenA · godB
- 2 ABAB toA · dreadB · toA · deadB
- 3 ABAB satedA · snaresB · createdA · prayersB
- 4 ABAB haltersA · nursedB · altarsA · accursedB
- 5 ABAB reprievalA · understoodB · evilA · goodB
- 6 ABAB despoilersA · thrownB · toilersA · aloneB
- 7 ABAB brandedA · fellB · handedA · hellB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Not your martyrs anointed of heaven-- | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| The ages are red where they trod-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But the Hunted--the world's bitter leaven-- | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Who smote at your imbecile God-- | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| A being to pander and fawn to, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| To propitiate, flatter and dread | 9 | ·˘/˘˘/˘·· |
| As a thing that your souls are in pawn to, | 10 | ·········· |
| A Dealer who traffics the dead; | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| A Trader with greed never sated, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Who barters the souls in his snares, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That were trapped in the lusts he created, | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| For incense and masses and prayers-- | 8 | ·˘/·/˘·· |
| They are crushed in the coils of your halters; | 10 | ········/˘ |
| 'Twere well--by the creeds ye have nursed-- | 8 | ········ |
| That ye send up a cry from your altars, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| A mass for the Martyrs Accursed; | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| A passionate prayer from reprieval | 9 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘ |
| For the Brotherhood not understood-- | 9 | ··/˘···˘/ |
| For the Heroes who died for the evil, | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Believing the evil was good. | 8 | ˘/˘·/˘·· |
| To the Breakers, the Bold, the Despoilers, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Who dreamed of a world over-thrown... | 8 | ········ |
| They who died for the millions of toilers-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Few--fronting the nations alone! | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| --To the Outlawed of men and the Branded, | 10 | ··/·····/˘ |
| Whether hated or hating they fell-- | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| I pledge the devoted, red-handed, | 9 | ···˘/˘·/˘ |
| Unfaltering Heroes of Hell! | 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.