At Liberty I Sit And See



At liberty I sit and see
Them, that have erst laugh'd me to scorn,
Whipp'd with the whip that scourged me:
And now they ban that they were born.

I see them sit full soberly
And think their earnest looks to hide;
Now, in themselves, they cannot spy
That they or this in me have spied.

I see them sitting all alone,
Marking the steps, each word and look;
And now they tread where I have gone,
The painful path that I forsook.

Now I see well I saw no whit
When they saw well, that now are blind;
But happy hap hath made me quit,
And just judgement hath them assign'd.

I see them wander all alone,
And tread full fast, in dreadful doubt,
The self-same path that I have gone:
Blessed be hap that brought me out!

At liberty all this I see,
And say no word but erst among,
Smiling at them that laugh'd at me:
Lo, such is hap! Mark well my song!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
128

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB ACXC DEFE GHGH DIFI AXAX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 822
Words 169
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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    "At Liberty I Sit And See" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/3347/at-liberty-i-sit-and-see>.

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    Which of these famous poems is written in villanelle form?
    A Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
    B The Owl And The Pussycat
    C Funeral Blues
    D Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening