Liberty Rejected
About this heart thou hastThy chains made fast,And think'st thou I would beTherefrom set free,And forth unbound be cast?
The ocean would as soonEntreat the moonUnsay the magic verseThat seals him hersFrom silver noon to noon.
She stooped her pearly headSeaward, and said:"Would'st thou I gave to theeThy liberty,In Time's youth forfeited?"
And from his inmost holdThe answer rolled:"Thy bondman to remainIs sweeter pain,Dearer an hundredfold."
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- entreat v. t.
- To treat, or conduct toward; to deal with; to use. [OE. entreten to treat, request, OF. entraiter to treat of; pref. en- (L. in) + traitier to treat. See Treat.]
- unsay v. t.
- To recant or recall, as what has been said; to refract; to take back again; to make as if not said. [1st pref. un- + say.]
- seaward a.
- Directed or situated toward the sea. Donne.
- inmost a.
- Deepest within; farthest from the surface or external part; innermost. [OE. innemest, AS. innemest, a double superlative form fr. inne within, fr. in in. The modern form is due to confusion with most. See In, and cf. Aftermost, Fore]
- bondman n.
- A man slave, or one bound to service without wages. [Bond,a.orn.+ man.]
- hundredfold n.
- A hundred times as much or as many.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Liberty Rejected is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, Liberty Rejected, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/liberty-rejected.html, id L11278.
Form and metre
Liberty Rejected is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBA, the Limerick. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other limericks, other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AABBA hastA · fastA · beB · freeB · castA
- 2 AABBA soonA · moonA · verseB · hersB · noonA
- 3 AABBA headA · saidA · theeB · libertyB · forfeitedA
- 4 AABBA holdA · rolledA · remainB · painB · hundredfoldA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| About this heart thou hast | 6 | ······ |
| Thy chains made fast, | 4 | ···· |
| And think'st thou I would be | 6 | ······ |
| Therefrom set free, | 4 | ˘/·· |
| And forth unbound be cast? | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| The ocean would as soon | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Entreat the moon | 4 | ˘/·· |
| Unsay the magic verse | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That seals him hers | 4 | ···· |
| From silver noon to noon. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| She stooped her pearly head | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Seaward, and said: | 4 | /˘·· |
| "Would'st thou I gave to thee | 6 | ······ |
| Thy liberty, | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| In Time's youth forfeited?" | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And from his inmost hold | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The answer rolled: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| "Thy bondman to remain | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Is sweeter pain, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Dearer an hundredfold." | 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.