To a Godson
Here hast thou before thee that constellationWhereunder was born thy light;These stars in the vault of high thoughts' mutationWill fashion thy life with might.Their prophecy, little one, we cannot know,They light up the way that, unknown, thou shalt goAnd kindle the thoughts that within shall glow.Thou first shalt them gather,Then choose thine own,--So canst thou the ratherGrope on alone.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To a Godson 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, To a Godson, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/to-a-godson.html, id L29262.
Form and metre
To a Godson is 11 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCCCDEDE.
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 ABABCCCDEDE constellationA · lightB · mutationA · mightB · knowC · goC · glowC · gatherD · ownE · ratherD · aloneE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here hast thou before thee that constellation | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Whereunder was born thy light; | 7 | ······· |
| These stars in the vault of high thoughts' mutation | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Will fashion thy life with might. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Their prophecy, little one, we cannot know, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| They light up the way that, unknown, thou shalt go | 11 | ······˘/··· |
| And kindle the thoughts that within shall glow. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Thou first shalt them gather, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Then choose thine own,-- | 4 | ···· |
| So canst thou the rather | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Grope on alone. | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.