Despair
No, no, poor blasted Hope!Since I (with thee) have lost the scopeOf all my joys, I will no moreVainly imploreThe unrelenting Destinies:He that can equally sustainThe strong assaults of joy and pain,May safely laugh at their decrees.
Despair, to thee I bow,Whose constancy disdains t'allowThose childish passions that destroyOur fickle joy;How cruel Fates so e'er appear,Their harmless anger I despise,And fix'd, can neither fall nor rise,Thrown below hope, but rais'd 'bove fear.
Words in this poem
- blasted a.
- Blighted; withered.
- unrelenting a.
- Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel.
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Despair is in the public domain. This text is taken from Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657. With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait., Project Gutenberg ebook #32986; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Stanley, Despair, in Original Lyrics (1651), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32986, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stanley-lyrics/despair.html, id L08932.
Form and metre
Despair is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCDDC hopeA · scopeA · moreB · imploreB · destiniesC · sustainD · painD · decreesC
- 2 --AABCCB bow · t'allow · destroyA · joyA · appearB · despiseC · riseC · fearB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No, no, poor blasted Hope! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Since I (with thee) have lost the scope | 8 | ········ |
| Of all my joys, I will no more | 8 | ········ |
| Vainly implore | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| The unrelenting Destinies: | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| He that can equally sustain | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| The strong assaults of joy and pain, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| May safely laugh at their decrees. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Despair, to thee I bow, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Whose constancy disdains t'allow | 8 | ·/˘˘˘//˘ |
| Those childish passions that destroy | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Our fickle joy; | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| How cruel Fates so e'er appear, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Their harmless anger I despise, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And fix'd, can neither fall nor rise, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thrown below hope, but rais'd 'bove fear. | 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.