Mistrust
You look at me with wan, bright eyesWhen in the deeper world I stray:You fear some hidden ambush liesIn wait to call me, "Come away."
What if I see behind the veilYour starry self beseeching me,Or at its stern command grow pale,"Let her be free, let her be free?"
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mistrust 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, Mistrust, in The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36913, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/russell-divine-vision/mistrust.html, id L11554.
Form and metre
Mistrust is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 eyesA · strayB · liesA · awayB
- 2 ABAB veilA · meB · paleA · freeB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You look at me with wan, bright eyes | 8 | ········ |
| When in the deeper world I stray: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| You fear some hidden ambush lies | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| In wait to call me, "Come away." | 8 | ······˘/ |
| What if I see behind the veil | 8 | ········ |
| Your starry self beseeching me, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Or at its stern command grow pale, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| "Let her be free, let her be free?" | 8 | ········ |
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.