The Proverbs of Confucius I
Threefold is the march of timeWhile the future slow advances,Like a dart the present glances,Silent stands the past sublime.
No impatience e'er can speed himOn his course if he delay;No alarm, no doubts impede himIf he keep his onward way;No regrets, no magic numbersWake the tranced one from his slumbers.Wouldst thou wisely and with pleasure,Pass the days of life's short measure,From the slow one counsel take,But a tool of him ne'er make;Ne'er as friend the swift one know,Nor the constant one as foe!
About this text
The Proverbs of Confucius I 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 Proverbs of Confucius I, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/the-proverbs-of-confucius-i.html, id L21887.
Form and metre
The Proverbs of Confucius I is 16 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABBA timeA · advancesB · glancesB · sublimeA
- 2 ABABCCDDEEFF himA · delayB · himA · wayB · numbersC · slumbersC · pleasureD · measureD · takeE · makeE · knowF · foeF
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Threefold is the march of time | 7 | /······ |
| While the future slow advances, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Like a dart the present glances, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Silent stands the past sublime. | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| No impatience e'er can speed him | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| On his course if he delay; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| No alarm, no doubts impede him | 8 | ·˘/··˘/· |
| If he keep his onward way; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| No regrets, no magic numbers | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Wake the tranced one from his slumbers. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Wouldst thou wisely and with pleasure, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Pass the days of life's short measure, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| From the slow one counsel take, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But a tool of him ne'er make; | 7 | ······· |
| Ne'er as friend the swift one know, | 7 | ······· |
| Nor the constant one as foe! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.