The Puppet-Show of Life
Thou'rt welcome in my box to peep!Life's puppet-show, the world in little,Thou'lt see depicted to a tittle,--But pray at some small distance keep!'Tis by the torch of love alone,By Cupid's taper, it is shown.
See, not a moment void the stage is!The child in arms at first they bring,--The boy then skips,--the youth now storms and rages,--The man contends, and ventures everything!
Each one attempts success to find,Yet narrow is the race-course ever;The chariot rolls, the axles quiver,The hero presses on, the coward stays behind,The proud man falls with mirth-inspiring fall,The wise man overtakes them all!
Thou see'st fair woman it the barrier stand,With beauteous hands, with smiling eyes,To glad the victor with his prize.
Words in this poem
- tittle n.
- A particle; a minute part; a jot; an iota. [OE. titel, titil, apparently a dim. of tit, in the sense of small; cf. G. tüttel a tittle, dim. of OHG. tutta teat. Perhaps, however, the same word as title, n.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Puppet-Show of Life 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 Puppet-Show of Life, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/the-puppet-show-of-life.html, id L21922.
Form and metre
The Puppet-Show of Life is 19 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABBACC peepA · littleB · tittleB · keepA · aloneC · shownC
- 2 ABAB isA · bringB · ragesA · everythingB
- 3 A--ABB findA · ever · quiver · behindA · fallB · allB
- 4 -AA stand · eyesA · prizeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou'rt welcome in my box to peep! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Life's puppet-show, the world in little, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Thou'lt see depicted to a tittle,-- | 9 | ··˘/˘··/˘ |
| But pray at some small distance keep! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| 'Tis by the torch of love alone, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| By Cupid's taper, it is shown. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| See, not a moment void the stage is! | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The child in arms at first they bring,-- | 8 | ········ |
| The boy then skips,--the youth now storms and rages,-- | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| The man contends, and ventures everything! | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Each one attempts success to find, | 8 | ··˘/˘/·· |
| Yet narrow is the race-course ever; | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| The chariot rolls, the axles quiver, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| The hero presses on, the coward stays behind, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/··· |
| The proud man falls with mirth-inspiring fall, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The wise man overtakes them all! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thou see'st fair woman it the barrier stand, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With beauteous hands, with smiling eyes, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| To glad the victor with his prize. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.