Different Destinies
Millions busily toil, that the human race may continue;But by only a few is propagated our kind.Thousands of seeds by the autumn are scattered, yet fruit is engenderedOnly by few, for the most back to the element go.But if one only can blossom, that one is able to scatterEven a bright living world, filled with creations eterne.
Words in this poem
- busily adv.
- In a busy manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Different Destinies is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Schiller — Third period, Project Gutenberg ebook #6796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Friedrich Schiller, Different Destinies, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/different-destinies.html, id L21894.
Form and metre
Different Destinies is 6 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millions busily toil, that the human race may continue; | 14 | /˘/˘···/˘··˘/˘ |
| But by only a few is propagated our kind. | 13 | ··/˘···/˘·˘/· |
| Thousands of seeds by the autumn are scattered, yet fruit is engendered | 17 | /˘····/˘·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Only by few, for the most back to the element go. | 13 | /˘········/˘· |
| But if one only can blossom, that one is able to scatter | 16 | ···/˘·/˘···/˘·/˘ |
| Even a bright living world, filled with creations eterne. | 13 | /··/˘···˘/˘˘/ |
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.