Hero
Fool,put your adventuresinto those thingswhich break ships--not female flesh.
Let there passover the mindthe waters offour oceans, the airsof four skies!
Return hollow-bellied,keen-eyed, hard!A simple scar or two.
About this text
Hero is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Book of Poems, Al Que Quiere!, Project Gutenberg ebook #51997; 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 Carlos Williams, Hero, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/hero.html, id L01104.
Form and metre
Hero is 13 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 3.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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.
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Fool, | 1 | · |
| put your adventures | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| into those things | 4 | ···· |
| which break ships-- | 3 | ··· |
| not female flesh. | 4 | ·/·· |
| Let there pass | 3 | ··· |
| over the mind | 4 | ···· |
| the waters of | 4 | ·/˘· |
| four oceans, the airs | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| of four skies! | 3 | ··· |
| Return hollow-bellied, | 6 | ˘//˘/˘ |
| keen-eyed, hard! | 3 | ··· |
| A simple scar or two. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.