To a World-Reformer
"I Have sacrificed all," thou sayest, "that man I might succor;Vain the attempt; my reward was persecution and hate."Shall I tell thee, my friend, how I to humor him manage?Trust the proverb! I ne'er have been deceived by it yet.Thou canst not sufficiently prize humanity's value;Let it be coined in deed as it exists in thy breast.E'en to the man whom thou chancest to meet in life's narrow pathway,If he should ask it of thee, hold forth a succoring hand.But for rain and for dew, for the general welfare of mortals,Leave thou Heaven to care, friend, as before, so e'en now.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a World-Reformer 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, To a World-Reformer, in The Poems of Schiller: Third Period (1805), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/schiller-third-period/to-a-world-reformer.html, id L21899.
Form and metre
To a World-Reformer is 10 lines in a single stanza. The metre is dactylic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 70%).
See other poems in dactylic 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.
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 dactylic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "I Have sacrificed all," thou sayest, "that man I might succor; | 14 | ··/˘········/˘ |
| Vain the attempt; my reward was persecution and hate." | 14 | ··˘/·˘/··˘/˘·· |
| Shall I tell thee, my friend, how I to humor him manage? | 14 | ·········/˘·/˘ |
| Trust the proverb! I ne'er have been deceived by it yet. | 14 | ··/˘····˘/˘··· |
| Thou canst not sufficiently prize humanity's value; | 14 | ···˘/˘˘·˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Let it be coined in deed as it exists in thy breast. | 14 | ····˘····˘/··· |
| E'en to the man whom thou chancest to meet in life's narrow pathway, | 16 | ······/˘····/˘/· |
| If he should ask it of thee, hold forth a succoring hand. | 14 | ··········/˘˘· |
| But for rain and for dew, for the general welfare of mortals, | 15 | ········/˘/··/˘ |
| Leave thou Heaven to care, friend, as before, so e'en now. | 13 | ··/˘········· |
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.