Dear Friends
Dear friends, reproach me not for what I do,Nor counsel me, nor pity me; nor sayThat I am wearing half my life awayFor bubble-work that only fools pursue.And if my bubbles be too small for you,Blow bigger then your own: the games we playTo fill the frittered minutes of a day,Good glasses are to read the spirit through.
And whoso reads may get him some shrewd skill;And some unprofitable scorn resign,To praise the very thing that he deplores;So, friends (dear friends), remember, if you will,The shame I win for singing is all mine,The gold I miss for dreaming is all yours.
Words in this poem
- bigger a.
- , compar. of Big.
- whoso pron.
- Whosoever. Piers Plowman.
- shrewd a.
- Inclining to shrew; disposing to curse or scold; hence, vicious; malicious; evil; wicked; mischievous; vexatious; rough; unfair; shrewish. [Originally the p. p. of shrew, v.t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dear Friends 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, Dear Friends, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/dear-friends.html, id L07991.
Form and metre
Dear Friends is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 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 ABBAABBA doA · sayB · awayB · pursueA · youA · playB · dayB · throughA
- 2 ABCABC skillA · resignB · deploresC · willA · mineB · yoursC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dear friends, reproach me not for what I do, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Nor counsel me, nor pity me; nor say | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That I am wearing half my life away | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| For bubble-work that only fools pursue. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And if my bubbles be too small for you, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Blow bigger then your own: the games we play | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To fill the frittered minutes of a day, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Good glasses are to read the spirit through. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And whoso reads may get him some shrewd skill; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And some unprofitable scorn resign, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘·˘/ |
| To praise the very thing that he deplores; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| So, friends (dear friends), remember, if you will, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The shame I win for singing is all mine, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The gold I miss for dreaming is all yours. | 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.