The Proverbs of Confucius II
Threefold is the form of space:Length, with ever restless motion,Seeks eternity's wide ocean;Breadth with boundless sway extends;Depth to unknown realms descends.
All as types to thee are given;Thou must onward strive for heaven,Never still or weary beWould'st thou perfect glory see;Far must thy researches go.Wouldst thou learn the world to know;Thou must tempt the dark abyssWouldst thou prove what Being is.
Naught but firmness gains the prize,--Naught but fulness makes us wise,--Buried deep, truth ever lies!
About this text
The Proverbs of Confucius II 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 II, 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-ii.html, id L21888.
Form and metre
The Proverbs of Confucius II is 16 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 -AABB space · motionA · oceanA · extendsB · descendsB
- 2 --AABB-- given · heaven · beA · seeA · goB · knowB · abyss · is
- 3 AAA prizeA · wiseA · liesA
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 form of space: | 7 | /······ |
| Length, with ever restless motion, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Seeks eternity's wide ocean; | 8 | ·˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Breadth with boundless sway extends; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Depth to unknown realms descends. | 7 | ··˘/·˘/ |
| All as types to thee are given; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Thou must onward strive for heaven, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Never still or weary be | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Would'st thou perfect glory see; | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| Far must thy researches go. | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Wouldst thou learn the world to know; | 7 | ······· |
| Thou must tempt the dark abyss | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Wouldst thou prove what Being is. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Naught but firmness gains the prize,-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Naught but fulness makes us wise,-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Buried deep, truth ever lies! | 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.