Light and Warmth
In cheerful faith that fears no illThe good man doth the world begin;And dreams that all without shall stillReflect the trusting soul within.Warm with the noble vows of youth,Hallowing his true arm to the truth;
Yet is the littleness of allSo soon to sad experience shown,That crowds but teach him to recallAnd centre thought on self alone;Till love, no more, emotion knows,And the heart freezes to repose.
Alas! though truth may light bestow,Not always warmth the beams impart,Blest he who gains the boon to know,Nor buys the knowledge with the heart.For warmth and light a blessing both to be,Feel as the enthusiast--as the world-wise see.
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,]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Light and Warmth 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, Light and Warmth, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/light-and-warmth.html, id L21891.
Form and metre
Light and Warmth is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABABCC illA · beginB · stillA · withinB · youthC · truthC
- 2 ABABCC allA · shownB · recallA · aloneB · knowsC · reposeC
- 3 ABABCC bestowA · impartB · knowA · heartB · beC · seeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In cheerful faith that fears no ill | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The good man doth the world begin; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And dreams that all without shall still | 8 | ········ |
| Reflect the trusting soul within. | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Warm with the noble vows of youth, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Hallowing his true arm to the truth; | 8 | /˘······ |
| Yet is the littleness of all | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| So soon to sad experience shown, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| That crowds but teach him to recall | 8 | ······/· |
| And centre thought on self alone; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Till love, no more, emotion knows, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And the heart freezes to repose. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Alas! though truth may light bestow, | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| Not always warmth the beams impart, | 8 | ·/····˘/ |
| Blest he who gains the boon to know, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor buys the knowledge with the heart. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For warmth and light a blessing both to be, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Feel as the enthusiast--as the world-wise see. | 12 | ···˘/˘······ |
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.