On Exaggerated Deference to Foreign Literary Opinion
What! and shall we, with such submissive airsAs age demands in reverence from the young,Await these crumbs of praise from Europe flung,And doubt of our own greatness till it bearsThe signet of your Goethes or Voltaires?We who alone in latter times have sungWith scarce less power than Arno's exiled tongue--We who are Milton's kindred, Shakespeare's heirs.The prize of lyric victory who shall gainIf ours be not the laurel, ours the palm?More than the froth and flotsam of the Seine,More than your Hugo-flare against the night,And more than Weimar's proud elaborate calm,One flash of Byron's lightning, Wordsworth's light.
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,]
- await v. t.
- To watch for; to look out for. [OF. awaitier, agaitier; (L. ad) + waitier, gaitier to watch, F. guetter. See Wait.]
- signet n.
- A seal; especially, in England, the seal used by the sovereign in sealing private letters and grants that pass by bill under the sign manual; -- called also privy signet. [OF. signet a signet, F., a bookmark, dim. of signe. See Sign, n., and cf. Sennet.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- flotsam n.
- Goods lost by shipwreck, and floating on the sea; -- in distinction from jetsam or jetson. Blackstone. [F. flotter to float. See FFlotilla, and cf. Jetsam.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Exaggerated Deference to Foreign Literary Opinion 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, On Exaggerated Deference to Foreign Literary Opinion, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/on-exaggerated-deference-to-foreign-literary-opinion.html, id L11258.
Form and metre
On Exaggerated Deference to Foreign Literary Opinion is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBA-C-DCD airsA · youngB · flungB · bearsA · voltairesA · sungB · tongueB · heirsA · gain · palmC · seine · nightD · calmC · lightD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What! and shall we, with such submissive airs | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| As age demands in reverence from the young, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Await these crumbs of praise from Europe flung, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| And doubt of our own greatness till it bears | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| The signet of your Goethes or Voltaires? | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| We who alone in latter times have sung | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| With scarce less power than Arno's exiled tongue-- | 10 | ···/·/˘/·· |
| We who are Milton's kindred, Shakespeare's heirs. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/·· |
| The prize of lyric victory who shall gain | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| If ours be not the laurel, ours the palm? | 10 | ·/···/˘/·· |
| More than the froth and flotsam of the Seine, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| More than your Hugo-flare against the night, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And more than Weimar's proud elaborate calm, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| One flash of Byron's lightning, Wordsworth's light. | 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.