Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!
Brother!--if we were richwe’d stick our chests outand hold our heads high!
There is no more pridein horses or in rein holding.We sit hunched together broodingour fate.
Well--all things turn bitter in the endwhether you choose the right orthe left wayand--dreams are not a bad thing.
About this text
Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad! 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, Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/libertad-igualdad-fraternidad.html, id L01105.
Form and metre
Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad! is 14 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 3 -A--A- well · endA · or · way · andA · thing
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Brother! | 2 | /˘ |
| --if we were rich | 4 | ···· |
| we’d stick our chests out | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| and hold our heads high! | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| There is no more pride | 5 | ····· |
| in horses or in rein holding. | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| We sit hunched together brooding | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| our fate. | 3 | /˘· |
| Well-- | 1 | · |
| all things turn bitter in the end | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| whether you choose the right or | 7 | ······· |
| the left way | 3 | ··· |
| and-- | 1 | · |
| dreams are not a bad thing. | 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.