Penalty
Because of the fullness of what I hadAll that I have seems void and vain.If I had not been happy I were not sad;Though my salt is savorless, why complain?
From the ripe perfection of what was mine,All that is mine seems worse than naught;Yet I know as I sit in the dark and pine,No cup could be drained which had not been fraught.
From the throb and thrill of a day that was,The day that now is seems dull with gloom;Yet I bear its dullness and darkness because'Tis but the reaction of glow and bloom.
From the royal feast which of old was spreadI am starved on the diet which now is mine;Yet I could not turn hungry from water and bread,If I had not been sated on fruit and wine.
Words in this poem
- savorless a.
- Having no savor; destitute of smell or of taste; insipid.
- fraught n.
- A freight; a cargo. [OE.fraight, fraght; akin to Dan. fragt, Sw. frakt, D. vracht, G. fracht, cf. OHG. fr merit, reward; perh. from corresponding to E. for + The root of E. own. Cf.]
- throb v. i.
- To beat, or pulsate, with more than usual force or rapidity; to beat in consequence of agitation; to palpitate; -- said of the heart, pulse, etc. [OE. ; of uncertain origin; cf. Russ. trepete a trembling, and E. trepidation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Penalty 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, Penalty, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/penalty.html, id L22213.
Form and metre
Penalty is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
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 hadA · vainB · sadA · complainB
- 2 ABAB mineA · naughtB · pineA · fraughtB
- 3 ABAB wasA · gloomB · becauseA · bloomB
- 4 ABAB spreadA · mineB · breadA · wineB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Because of the fullness of what I had | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| All that I have seems void and vain. | 8 | ········ |
| If I had not been happy I were not sad; | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Though my salt is savorless, why complain? | 10 | ····/˘˘·˘/ |
| From the ripe perfection of what was mine, | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| All that is mine seems worse than naught; | 8 | ········ |
| Yet I know as I sit in the dark and pine, | 11 | ··········· |
| No cup could be drained which had not been fraught. | 10 | ·········· |
| From the throb and thrill of a day that was, | 10 | ·········· |
| The day that now is seems dull with gloom; | 9 | ········· |
| Yet I bear its dullness and darkness because | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| 'Tis but the reaction of glow and bloom. | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| From the royal feast which of old was spread | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| I am starved on the diet which now is mine; | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Yet I could not turn hungry from water and bread, | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| If I had not been sated on fruit and wine. | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
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.