Independence
My life more civil is and freeThan any civil polity.
Ye princes, keep your realmsAnd circumscribèd power,Not wide as are my dreams,Nor rich as is this hour.
What can ye give which I have not?What can ye take which I have got?Can ye defend the dangerless?Can ye inherit nakedness?
To all true wants Time’s ear is deaf,Penurious States lend no reliefOut of their pelf:But a free soul--thank God--Can help itself.
Be sure your fateDoth keep apart its state,--Not linked with any band,Even the noblest in the land,--
In tented fields with cloth of goldNo place doth hold,But is more chivalrous than they are,And sigheth for a nobler war;A finer strain its trumpet rings,A brighter gleam its armor flings.
The life that I aspire to live,No man proposeth me;No trade upon the streetWears its emblazonry.
Words in this poem
- dangerless a.
- Free from danger.
- nakedness n.
- The condition of being naked.
- pelf n.
- Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- tented a.
- Covered with tents.
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
- emblazonry n.
- The act or art of an emblazoner; heraldic or ornamental decoration, as pictures or figures on shields, standards, etc.; emblazonment.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Independence is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Nature, Project Gutenberg ebook #59988; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry David Thoreau, Independence, in Poems of Nature (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59988, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thoreau-poems/independence.html, id L02839.
Form and metre
Independence is 29 lines in 7 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is AABB, in 2 of the 7 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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.
- 2 -A-A realms · powerA · dreams · hourA
- 3 AABB notA · gotA · dangerlessB · nakednessB
- 4 --A-A deaf · relief · pelfA · god · itselfA
- 5 AABB fateA · stateA · bandB · landB
- 6 AA--BB goldA · holdA · are · war · ringsB · flingsB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My life more civil is and free | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Than any civil polity. | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Ye princes, keep your realms | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And circumscribèd power, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Not wide as are my dreams, | 6 | ······ |
| Nor rich as is this hour. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| What can ye give which I have not? | 8 | ········ |
| What can ye take which I have got? | 8 | ········ |
| Can ye defend the dangerless? | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Can ye inherit nakedness? | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| To all true wants Time’s ear is deaf, | 8 | ········ |
| Penurious States lend no relief | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Out of their pelf: | 4 | ···· |
| But a free soul--thank God-- | 6 | ······ |
| Can help itself. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Be sure your fate | 4 | ···· |
| Doth keep apart its state,-- | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Not linked with any band, | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| Even the noblest in the land,-- | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| In tented fields with cloth of gold | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| No place doth hold, | 4 | ···· |
| But is more chivalrous than they are, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| And sigheth for a nobler war; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A finer strain its trumpet rings, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A brighter gleam its armor flings. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The life that I aspire to live, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| No man proposeth me; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| No trade upon the street | 6 | ······ |
| Wears its emblazonry. | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
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.