Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!
Brother!--if we were richwe’d stick our chests outand hold our heads high!It is dreams that have destroyed us.
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 15 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 | ··/˘·· |
| It is dreams that have destroyed us. | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| 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.