The Miracle
"Dear brother, dearest friend, when I am dead,And you shall see no more this face of mine,Let nothing but red roses be the signOf the white life I lost for him," she said;"No, do not curse him, -- pity him instead;Forgive him! -- forgive me! . . God's anodyneFor human hate is pity; and the wineThat makes men wise, forgiveness. I have readLove's message in love's murder, and I die."And so they laid her just where she would lie, --Under red roses. Red they bloomed and fell;But when flushed autumn and the snows went by,And spring came, -- lo, from every bud's green shellBurst a white blossom. -- Can love reason why?
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Miracle 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, The Miracle, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/the-miracle.html, id L08010.
Form and metre
The Miracle is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACCDCDC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% 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 ABBAABBACCDCDC deadA · mineB · signB · saidA · insteadA · anodyneB · wineB · readA · dieC · lieC · fellD · byC · shellD · whyC
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 brother, dearest friend, when I am dead, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And you shall see no more this face of mine, | 10 | ·········· |
| Let nothing but red roses be the sign | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of the white life I lost for him," she said; | 10 | ·········· |
| "No, do not curse him, -- pity him instead; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Forgive him! -- forgive me! . . God's anodyne | 10 | ˘/·˘/··/˘˘ |
| For human hate is pity; and the wine | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That makes men wise, forgiveness. I have read | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Love's message in love's murder, and I die." | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And so they laid her just where she would lie, -- | 10 | ·········· |
| Under red roses. Red they bloomed and fell; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But when flushed autumn and the snows went by, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And spring came, -- lo, from every bud's green shell | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Burst a white blossom. -- Can love reason why? | 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.