The Creed
Whoever was begotten by pure love,And came desired and welcome into life,Is of immaculate conception. HeWhose heart is full of tenderness and truth,Who loves mankind more than he loves himself,And cannot find room in his heart for hate,May be another Christ. We all may beThe Saviours of the world if we believeIn the Divinity which dwells in usAnd worship it, and nail our grosser selves,Our tempers, greeds, and our unworthy aims,Upon the cross. Who giveth love to all;Pays kindness for unkindness, smiles for frowns;And lends new courage to each fainting heart,And strengthens hope and scatters joy abroad--He, too, is a Redeemer, Son of God.
Words in this poem
- whoever pron.
- Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
- immaculate a.
- Without stain or blemish; spotless; undefiled; clear; pure. [L. immaculatus; pref. im- not + maculatus, p. p. of maculare to spot, stane, fr. macula spot. See Mail armor.]
- redeemer n.
- One who redeems.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Creed 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, The Creed, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/the-creed.html, id L22190.
Form and metre
The Creed is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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---A--------- love · life · heA · truth · himself · hate · beA · believe · us · selves · aims · all · frowns · heart · abroad · god
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Whoever was begotten by pure love, | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| And came desired and welcome into life, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Is of immaculate conception. He | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘· |
| Whose heart is full of tenderness and truth, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Who loves mankind more than he loves himself, | 10 | ··//····˘/ |
| And cannot find room in his heart for hate, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| May be another Christ. We all may be | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| The Saviours of the world if we believe | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| In the Divinity which dwells in us | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| And worship it, and nail our grosser selves, | 10 | ·/˘···//˘· |
| Our tempers, greeds, and our unworthy aims, | 10 | //˘··/˘/˘· |
| Upon the cross. Who giveth love to all; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Pays kindness for unkindness, smiles for frowns; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And lends new courage to each fainting heart, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And strengthens hope and scatters joy abroad-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| He, too, is a Redeemer, Son of God. | 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.