The Fires of God VII
O blessed voices, O compassionate hands,Calling and healing, O great-hearted brothers!I come to you. Ring out across the landsYour benediction, and I too will singWith you, and haply kindle in another’sDark desolate hour the flame you stirred in me.O bountiful earth, in adoration meetI bow to you; O glory of years to be,I too will labour to your fashioning.Go down, go down, unweariable feet,Together we will march towards the waysWherein the marshalled hosts of morning waitIn sleepless watch, with banners wide unfurledAcross the skies in ceremonial state,To greet the men who lived triumphant days,And stormed the secret beauty of the world.
Words in this poem
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- bountiful a.
- Free in giving; liberal in bestowing gifts and favors.
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Fires of God VII is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, The Fires of God VII, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/the-fires-of-god-vii.html, id L23040.
Form and metre
The Fires of God VII is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABA-BCDC-DEFGFEG handsA · brothersB · landsA · sing · another'sB · meC · meetD · beC · fashioning · feetD · waysE · waitF · unfurledG · stateF · daysE · worldG
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O blessed voices, O compassionate hands, | 10 | ··/˘·˘/˘˘· |
| Calling and healing, O great-hearted brothers! | 11 | /˘·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| I come to you. Ring out across the lands | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Your benediction, and I too will sing | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| With you, and haply kindle in another’s | 11 | ···/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Dark desolate hour the flame you stirred in me. | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| O bountiful earth, in adoration meet | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| I bow to you; O glory of years to be, | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| I too will labour to your fashioning. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Go down, go down, unweariable feet, | 9 | ········· |
| Together we will march towards the ways | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Wherein the marshalled hosts of morning wait | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| In sleepless watch, with banners wide unfurled | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Across the skies in ceremonial state, | 10 | ˘/····˘/˘· |
| To greet the men who lived triumphant days, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And stormed the secret beauty of the world. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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.