A Better Thing
I took it for a bird of prey that soaredHigh over ocean, battled mount, and plain;'Twas but a bird-moth, which with limp horns goredThe invisibly obstructing window-pane!
Better than eagle, with far-towering nerveBut downward bent, greedy, marauding eye,Guest of the flowers, thou art: unhurt they serveThee, little angel of a lower sky!
Words in this poem
- invisibly adv.
- In an invisible manner, Denham.
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- towering a.
- Very high; elevated; rising aloft; as, a towering height.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Better Thing is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, A Better Thing, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-better-thing.html, id L22318.
Form and metre
A Better Thing is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABAB soaredA · plainB · goredA · paneB
- 2 ABAB nerveA · eyeB · serveA · skyB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I took it for a bird of prey that soared | 10 | ·········· |
| High over ocean, battled mount, and plain; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| 'Twas but a bird-moth, which with limp horns gored | 10 | ·········· |
| The invisibly obstructing window-pane! | 11 | ·˘/˘˘˘/˘/˘· |
| Better than eagle, with far-towering nerve | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| But downward bent, greedy, marauding eye, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘· |
| Guest of the flowers, thou art: unhurt they serve | 10 | ···/··˘/·· |
| Thee, little angel of a lower sky! | 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.