A Way of Escape
There's a way of escape through the Gate of Sorrow,A light at the end of the Path of Pain:But our joy and our love can have no to-morrow,And to drink is to sink to the earth again.
There is death in the breath when our lips draw nigher,And we lay waste the plain for a flower to grow;And we build up the tower of an hour's desireWith dust from the pit of its overthrow.
About this text
A Way of Escape is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Divine Vision, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #36913; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George William Russell, A Way of Escape, in The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36913, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/russell-divine-vision/a-way-of-escape.html, id L11557.
Form and metre
A Way of Escape is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 sorrowA · painB · morrowA · againB
- 2 ABAB nigherA · growB · desireA · overthrowB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There's a way of escape through the Gate of Sorrow, | 12 | ····˘/····/˘ |
| A light at the end of the Path of Pain: | 10 | ·········· |
| But our joy and our love can have no to-morrow, | 12 | ·/··/·····/˘ |
| And to drink is to sink to the earth again. | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| There is death in the breath when our lips draw nigher, | 12 | ·······/···· |
| And we lay waste the plain for a flower to grow; | 11 | ········/·· |
| And we build up the tower of an hour's desire | 11 | ·····/··/˘/ |
| With dust from the pit of its overthrow. | 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.