Zola
Because he puts the compromising chartOf hell before your eyes, you are afraid;Because he counts the price that you have paidFor innocence, and counts it from the start,You loathe him. But he sees the human heartOf God meanwhile, and in God's hand has weighedYour squeamish and emasculate crusadeAgainst the grim dominion of his art.
Never until we conquer the uncouthConnivings of our shamed indifference(We call it Christian faith!) are we to scanThe racked and shrieking hideousness of TruthTo find, in hate's polluted self-defenceThrobbing, the pulse, the divine heart of man.
Words in this poem
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- scan v. t.
- To mount by steps; to go through with step by step. [L. scandere, scansum, to climb, to scan, akin to Skr. skand to spring, leap: cf. F. scander. Cf. Ascend, Descend, Scale a ladder.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Zola 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, Zola, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/zola.html, id L07996.
Form and metre
Zola is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 71% 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 chartA · afraidB · paidB · startA · heartA · weighedB · crusadeB · artA
- 2 ABCABC uncouthA · indifferenceB · scanC · truthA · defenceB · manC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Because he puts the compromising chart | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| Of hell before your eyes, you are afraid; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Because he counts the price that you have paid | 10 | ·········· |
| For innocence, and counts it from the start, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| You loathe him. But he sees the human heart | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of God meanwhile, and in God's hand has weighed | 10 | ··/······· |
| Your squeamish and emasculate crusade | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Against the grim dominion of his art. | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Never until we conquer the uncouth | 10 | /˘···/˘·// |
| Connivings of our shamed indifference | 11 | ˘/˘·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| (We call it Christian faith!) are we to scan | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The racked and shrieking hideousness of Truth | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To find, in hate's polluted self-defence | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Throbbing, the pulse, the divine heart of man. | 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.