The Power of Woman
Mighty art thou, because of the peaceful charms of thy presence;That which the silent does not, never the boastful can do.Vigor in man I expect, the law in its honors maintaining,But, through the graces alone, woman e'er rules or should rule.Many, indeed, have ruled through the might of the spirit and action,But then thou noblest of crowns, they were deficient in thee.No real queen exists but the womanly beauty of woman;Where it appears, it must rule; ruling because it appears!
Words in this poem
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Power of Woman 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 Power of Woman, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/the-power-of-woman.html, id L21885.
Form and metre
The Power of Woman is 8 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mighty art thou, because of the peaceful charms of thy presence; | 15 | /˘······/˘···/˘ |
| That which the silent does not, never the boastful can do. | 14 | ···/˘··/˘·/˘·· |
| Vigor in man I expect, the law in its honors maintaining, | 16 | /˘···˘/····/˘˘/˘ |
| But, through the graces alone, woman e'er rules or should rule. | 14 | ···/˘˘//˘····· |
| Many, indeed, have ruled through the might of the spirit and action, | 15 | /˘/·······/˘·/˘ |
| But then thou noblest of crowns, they were deficient in thee. | 14 | ···/˘····˘/˘·· |
| No real queen exists but the womanly beauty of woman; | 15 | ···˘/··/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| Where it appears, it must rule; ruling because it appears! | 14 | ··˘/···/˘···˘/ |
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.