Communism
When my blood flows calm as a purling river,When my heart is asleep and my brain has sway,It is then that I vow we must part forever,That I will forget you, and put you awayOut of my life, as a dream is banishedOut of the mind when the dreamer awakes;That I know it will be, when the spell has vanished,Better for both of our sakes.
When the court of the mind is ruled by Reason,I know it is wiser for us to part;But Love is a spy who is plotting treason,In league with that warm, red rebel, the Heart.They whisper to me that the King is cruel,That his reign is wicked, his law a sin;And every word they utter is fuelTo the flame that smoulders within.
And on nights like this, when my blood runs riotWith the fever of youth and its mad desires,When my brain in vain bids my heart be quiet,When my breast seems the centre of lava-fires,Oh, then is the time when most I miss you,And I swear by the stars and my soul and sayThat I will have you and hold you and kiss you,Though the whole world stands in the way.
And like Communists, as mad, as disloyal,My fierce emotions roam out of their lair;They hate King Reason for being royal;They would fire his castle, and burn him there.Oh, Love! they would clasp you and crush you and kill you,In the insurrection of uncontrol.Across the miles, does this wild war thrill youThat is raging in my soul?
Words in this poem
- purling n.
- The motion of a small stream running among obstructions; also, the murmur it makes in so doing. [See 3d Purl.]
- dreamer n.
- One who dreams.
- rebel a.
- Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious; as, rebel troops. [F. rebelle, fr. L. rebellis. See Rebel, v. t.]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- lair n.
- A place in which to lie or rest; especially, the bed or couch of a wild beast. [OE. leir, AS. leger; akin to D. leger, G. lager couch, lair, OHG. laga, Goth. ligrs, and to E. lie. See Lie to be prostrate, and cf. Layer, Leaguer.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Communism is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Communism, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/communism.html, id L22140.
Form and metre
Communism is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
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 -A-AB-B- river · swayA · forever · awayA · banishedB · awakes · vanishedB · sakes
- 2 ABABCDCD reasonA · partB · treasonA · heartB · cruelC · sinD · fuelC · withinD
- 3 ABABCDCD riotA · desiresB · quietA · firesB · youC · sayD · youC · wayD
- 4 ABABCDCD disloyalA · lairB · royalA · thereB · youC · uncontrolD · youC · soulD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When my blood flows calm as a purling river, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| When my heart is asleep and my brain has sway, | 11 | ····˘/····· |
| It is then that I vow we must part forever, | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| That I will forget you, and put you away | 11 | ···˘/····˘/ |
| Out of my life, as a dream is banished | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Out of the mind when the dreamer awakes; | 10 | ······/˘˘/ |
| That I know it will be, when the spell has vanished, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Better for both of our sakes. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| When the court of the mind is ruled by Reason, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| I know it is wiser for us to part; | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| But Love is a spy who is plotting treason, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| In league with that warm, red rebel, the Heart. | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| They whisper to me that the King is cruel, | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| That his reign is wicked, his law a sin; | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And every word they utter is fuel | 11 | ·/˘˘··/˘·/˘ |
| To the flame that smoulders within. | 8 | ········ |
| And on nights like this, when my blood runs riot | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| With the fever of youth and its mad desires, | 11 | ··/˘·····˘/ |
| When my brain in vain bids my heart be quiet, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| When my breast seems the centre of lava-fires, | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘/ |
| Oh, then is the time when most I miss you, | 10 | ·········· |
| And I swear by the stars and my soul and say | 11 | ··········· |
| That I will have you and hold you and kiss you, | 11 | ··········· |
| Though the whole world stands in the way. | 8 | ········ |
| And like Communists, as mad, as disloyal, | 11 | ··/˘˘···˘/˘ |
| My fierce emotions roam out of their lair; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| They hate King Reason for being royal; | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| They would fire his castle, and burn him there. | 10 | ··/·/˘···· |
| Oh, Love! they would clasp you and crush you and kill you, | 12 | ············ |
| In the insurrection of uncontrol. | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| Across the miles, does this wild war thrill you | 10 | ˘/········ |
| That is raging in my soul? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.