Courage
There is a courage, a majestic thingThat springs forth from the brow of pain, full-grown,Minerva-like, and dares all dangers known,And all the threatening future yet may bring;Crowned with the helmet of great suffering;Serene with that grand strength by martyrs shown,When at the stake they die and make no moan,And even as the flames leap up are heard to sing:
A courage so sublime and unafraid,It wears its sorrows like a coat of mail;And Fate, the archer, passes by dismayed,Knowing his best barbed arrows needs must failTo pierce a soul so armored and arrayedThat Death himself might look on it and quail.
Words in this poem
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- armored a.
- Clad with armor.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Courage 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, Courage, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/courage.html, id L22203.
Form and metre
Courage is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 thingA · grownB · knownB · bringA · sufferingA · shownB · moanB · singA
- 2 ABABAB unafraidA · mailB · dismayedA · failB · arrayedA · quailB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a courage, a majestic thing | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| That springs forth from the brow of pain, full-grown, | 10 | ·········· |
| Minerva-like, and dares all dangers known, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| And all the threatening future yet may bring; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Crowned with the helmet of great suffering; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Serene with that grand strength by martyrs shown, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| When at the stake they die and make no moan, | 10 | ·········· |
| And even as the flames leap up are heard to sing: | 11 | ·/········· |
| A courage so sublime and unafraid, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| It wears its sorrows like a coat of mail; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And Fate, the archer, passes by dismayed, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Knowing his best barbed arrows needs must fail | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| To pierce a soul so armored and arrayed | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That Death himself might look on it and quail. | 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.