At Michael Sars's Grave
Ever he would roamToward th' eternal home;From the least life deep in oceanTo each gleam of stars in motion,Worth of all he weighed.Now the Lord lends aid.
Still he passed beyond,Softly dreaming; fondNature met him as her lover.God with strength his soul shall cover'Mid the starry throngThrough the spheres' pure song.
Even here on earthHarmony's sweet birth--When discovery new truth sunders,When the small reveals its wonders--Filled his soul with songFor the ages long.
Where his watch he kept,Eyes a hundred swept.Where millenniums sand assembled,Where the tiniest life-pulse trembled,There he sought the clue,Silent, wise, and true.
In a water glassSearching he saw passAll the ocean's life; his thinkingTo unfathomed deeps was sinking;Where lay riddles locked,There he came and knocked.
Fair our fatherland,While such faith shall stand!With an eye so true and tender,With a sense so fine for splendorIn the small and still,--Great ends we fulfil!
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- clue n.
- A ball of thread, yarn, or cord; also, The thread itself. [OE. clewe, clowe, clue, AS. cleowen, cliwen, clywe ball of thread; akin to D. kluwen, OHG. chliwa, chliuwa, G. dim. kleuel, knäuel, and perch. to L. gluma hull,]
- fatherland n.
- One's native land; the native land of one's fathers or ancestors. [Imitated fr. D. vaderland. See Father, and Land.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At Michael Sars's Grave is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, At Michael Sars's Grave, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/at-michael-sars-s-grave.html, id L29310.
Form and metre
At Michael Sars's Grave is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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.
- 1 AABBCC roamA · homeA · oceanB · motionB · weighedC · aidC
- 2 AABBCC beyondA · fondA · loverB · coverB · throngC · songC
- 3 AABBCC earthA · birthA · sundersB · wondersB · songC · longC
- 4 AABBCC keptA · sweptA · assembledB · trembledB · clueC · trueC
- 5 AABBCC glassA · passA · thinkingB · sinkingB · lockedC · knockedC
- 6 AABBCC fatherlandA · standA · tenderB · splendorB · stillC · fulfilC
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ever he would roam | 5 | /˘··· |
| Toward th' eternal home; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| From the least life deep in ocean | 7 | ······/ |
| To each gleam of stars in motion, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Worth of all he weighed. | 5 | ····· |
| Now the Lord lends aid. | 5 | ····· |
| Still he passed beyond, | 5 | ····· |
| Softly dreaming; fond | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| Nature met him as her lover. | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| God with strength his soul shall cover | 8 | ······/˘ |
| 'Mid the starry throng | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Through the spheres' pure song. | 5 | ····· |
| Even here on earth | 5 | /˘··· |
| Harmony's sweet birth-- | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| When discovery new truth sunders, | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| When the small reveals its wonders-- | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| Filled his soul with song | 5 | ····· |
| For the ages long. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Where his watch he kept, | 5 | ····· |
| Eyes a hundred swept. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Where millenniums sand assembled, | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Where the tiniest life-pulse trembled, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| There he sought the clue, | 5 | ····· |
| Silent, wise, and true. | 5 | /˘··· |
| In a water glass | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Searching he saw pass | 5 | /˘··· |
| All the ocean's life; his thinking | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| To unfathomed deeps was sinking; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Where lay riddles locked, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| There he came and knocked. | 5 | ····· |
| Fair our fatherland, | 5 | ·//˘· |
| While such faith shall stand! | 5 | ····· |
| With an eye so true and tender, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| With a sense so fine for splendor | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In the small and still,-- | 5 | ····· |
| Great ends we fulfil! | 5 | ····· |
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.