The Recovery
Sin! wilt thou vanquish me!And shall I yield the victory?Shall all my joys be spoiled,And pleasures soiledBy thee!Shall I remainAs one that's slainAnd never more lift up the head?Is not my Saviour dead!His blood, thy bane, my balsam, bliss, joy, wine,Shall thee destroy; heal, feed, make me divine.
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,]
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
- bane v. t.
- To be the bane of; to ruin. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Recovery 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 Recovery, in The Salutation, and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #61586, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/traherne-poems/the-recovery-2.html, id L13329.
Form and metre
The Recovery is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 55% of the lines. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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-BBACCDDEE meA · victory · spoiledB · soiledB · theeA · remainC · slainC · headD · deadD · wineE · divineE
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sin! wilt thou vanquish me! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And shall I yield the victory? | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Shall all my joys be spoiled, | 6 | ······ |
| And pleasures soiled | 4 | ·/˘· |
| By thee! | 2 | ·· |
| Shall I remain | 4 | ··˘/ |
| As one that's slain | 4 | ···· |
| And never more lift up the head? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Is not my Saviour dead! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| His blood, thy bane, my balsam, bliss, joy, wine, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Shall thee destroy; heal, feed, make me divine. | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
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.