Analysis of The Words Of Belief
Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)
Three words will I name thee--around and about,
From the lip to the lip, full of meaning, they flee;
But they had not their birth in the being without,
And the heart, not the lip, must their oracle be!
And all worth in the man shall forever be o'er
When in those three words he believes no more.
Man is made free!--Man by birthright is free,
Though the tyrant may deem him but born for his tool.
Whatever the shout of the rabble may be--
Whatever the ranting misuse of the fool--
Still fear not the slave, when he breaks from his chain,
For the man made a freeman grows safe in his gain.
And virtue is more than a shade or a sound,
And man may her voice, in this being, obey;
And though ever he slip on the stony ground,
Yet ever again to the godlike way,
To the science of good though the wise may be blind,
Yet the practice is plain to the childlike mind.
And a God there is!--over space, over time,
While the human will rocks, like a reed, to and fro,
Lives the will of the holy--a purpose sublime,
A thought woven over creation below;
Changing and shifting the all we inherit,
But changeless through all one immutable spirit
Hold fast the three words of belief--though about
From the lip to the lip, full of meaning, they flee;
Yet they take not their birth from the being without--
But a voice from within must their oracle be;
And never all worth in the man can be o'er,
Till in those three words he believes no more.
Scheme | aBabcd bebeff ghghii jkjkll aBabcd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111101001 101101111011 111111001001 001101111001 0110011010110 1011110111 111111111 101011111111 1001101011 1001001101 11101111111 101101011011 01011101101 01101011001 01101110101 110011011 101011101111 1010111011 00111101101 101011101101 101101001001 01101001001 10010011010 11111010010 11011101101 101101111011 111111101001 101101111001 010110011110 1011110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,412 |
Words | 277 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 219 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 75 Views
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"The Words Of Belief" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14433/the-words-of-belief>.
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