The Instruction
Spue out thy filth, thy flesh abjure;Let not contingents thee defile,For transients only are impure,And aery things thy soul beguile.
Unfelt, unseen, let those things beWhich to thy spirit were unknown,When to thy blessed infancyThe world, thyself, thy God was shown.
All that is great and stable stoodBefore thy purer eyes at first:All that in visibles is goodOr pure, or fair, or unaccurst.
Whatever else thou now dost seeIn custom, action, or desire,'Tis but a part of miseryIn which all men at once conspire.
Words in this poem
- abjure v. t.
- To renounce upon oath; to forswear; to disavow; as, to abjure allegiance to a prince. To abjure the realm, is to swear to abandon it forever. [L. abjurare to deny upon oath; ab + jurare to swear, fr. jus, juris, right, law; cf. F. abjurer. See Jury.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Instruction is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne, 1636?-1674, from the original manuscripts, Project Gutenberg ebook #61586; 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 Traherne, The Instruction, in Poetical Works (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #61586, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/traherne-poems/the-instruction.html, id L13298.
Form and metre
The Instruction is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 4 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 -A-A abjure · defileA · impure · beguileA
- 2 -A-A be · unknownA · infancy · shownA
- 3 ABAB stoodA · firstB · goodA · unaccurstB
- 4 -A-A see · desireA · misery · conspireA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Spue out thy filth, thy flesh abjure; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Let not contingents thee defile, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| For transients only are impure, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| And aery things thy soul beguile. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Unfelt, unseen, let those things be | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Which to thy spirit were unknown, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| When to thy blessed infancy | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| The world, thyself, thy God was shown. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| All that is great and stable stood | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Before thy purer eyes at first: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| All that in visibles is good | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Or pure, or fair, or unaccurst. | 8 | ········ |
| Whatever else thou now dost see | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In custom, action, or desire, | 9 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| 'Tis but a part of misery | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| In which all men at once conspire. | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
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.