The Metaphysician
"How far beneath me seems the earthly ball!The pigmy race below I scarce can see;How does my art, the noblest art of all,Bear me close up to heaven's bright canopy!"So cries the slater from his tower's high top,And so the little would-be mighty man,Hans Metaphysicus, from out his critic-shop.Explain, thou little would-be mighty man!The tower from which thy looks the world survey,Whereof,--whereon is it erected, pray?How didst thou mount it? Of what use to theeIts naked heights, save o'er the vale to see?
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- slater n.
- One who lays slates, or whose occupation is to slate buildings.
- whereof adv.
- Of which; of whom; formerly, also, with which; -- used relatively.
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Metaphysician 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, The Metaphysician, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/the-metaphysician.html, id L21913.
Form and metre
The Metaphysician is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABA-CDCDEEBB ballA · seeB · allA · canopy · topC · manD · shopC · manD · surveyE · prayE · theeB · seeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "How far beneath me seems the earthly ball! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The pigmy race below I scarce can see; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| How does my art, the noblest art of all, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Bear me close up to heaven's bright canopy!" | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘˘ |
| So cries the slater from his tower's high top, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| And so the little would-be mighty man, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Hans Metaphysicus, from out his critic-shop. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Explain, thou little would-be mighty man! | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| The tower from which thy looks the world survey, | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| Whereof,--whereon is it erected, pray? | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| How didst thou mount it? Of what use to thee | 10 | ·········· |
| Its naked heights, save o'er the vale to see? | 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.