Calvary
Friendless and faint, with martyred steps and slow,Faint for the flesh, but for the spirit free,Stung by the mob that came to see the show,The Master toiled along to Calvary;We gibed him, as he went, with houndish glee,Till his dimmed eyes for us did overflow;We cursed his vengeless hands thrice wretchedly, --And this was nineteen hundred years ago.
But after nineteen hundred years the shameStill clings, and we have not made good the lossThat outraged faith has entered in his name.Ah, when shall come love's courage to be strong!Tell me, O Lord -- tell me, O Lord, how longAre we to keep Christ writhing on the cross!
Words in this poem
- friendless a.
- Destitute of friends; forsaken. [AS. freóndleás.]
- calvary n.
- The place where Christ was crucified, on a small hill outside of Jerusalem. Luke xxiii. 33. [L. calvaria a bare skull, fr. calva the scalp without hair. fr. calvus bald; cf. F. calvaire.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- wretchedly adv.
- In a wretched manner; miserably; despicable.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Calvary is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Calvary, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/calvary.html, id L07990.
Form and metre
Calvary is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABA-BA-A slowA · freeB · showA · calvary · gleeB · overflowA · wretchedly · agoA
- 2 ABACCB shameA · lossB · nameA · strongC · longC · crossB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Friendless and faint, with martyred steps and slow, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Faint for the flesh, but for the spirit free, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Stung by the mob that came to see the show, | 10 | ·········· |
| The Master toiled along to Calvary; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘˘ |
| We gibed him, as he went, with houndish glee, | 10 | ·········· |
| Till his dimmed eyes for us did overflow; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| We cursed his vengeless hands thrice wretchedly, -- | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
| And this was nineteen hundred years ago. | 10 | ···///˘·˘/ |
| But after nineteen hundred years the shame | 10 | ···///˘··· |
| Still clings, and we have not made good the loss | 10 | ·········· |
| That outraged faith has entered in his name. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Ah, when shall come love's courage to be strong! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Tell me, O Lord -- tell me, O Lord, how long | 10 | ·········· |
| Are we to keep Christ writhing on the cross! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.