The gods man makes he breaks; proclaims them each
The gods man makes he breaks; proclaims them eachImmortal, and himself outlives them all:But whom he set not up he cannot reachTo shake His cloud-dark sun-bright pedestal.
About this text
The gods man makes he breaks; proclaims them each 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, The gods man makes he breaks; proclaims them each, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/the-gods-man-makes-he-breaks-proclaims-them-each.html, id L26228.
Form and metre
The gods man makes he breaks; proclaims them each is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABAB eachA · allB · reachA · pedestalB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The gods man makes he breaks; proclaims them each | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Immortal, and himself outlives them all: | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/·/·· |
| But whom he set not up he cannot reach | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To shake His cloud-dark sun-bright pedestal. | 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.