A Cry
Lord, hear my discontent: all blank I stand,A mirror polished by thy hand;Thy sun's beams flash and flame from me--I cannot help it: here I stand, there he!To one of them I cannot say,Go, and on yonder water play;Nor one poor ragged daisy can I fashion--I do not make the words of this my limping passion!If I should say, Now I will think a thought,Lo, I must wait, unknowingWhat thought in me is growing,Until the thing to birth be brought!Nor know I then what next will comeFrom out the gulf of silence dumb:I am the door the thing will findTo pass into the general mind!I cannot say I think--I only stand upon the thought-well's brink:From darkness to the sun the water bubbles up--lift it in my cup.Thou only thinkest--I am thought;Me and my thought thou thinkest. NoughtAm I but as a fountain spoutFrom which thy water welleth out.Thou art the only one, the all in all.--Yet when my soul on thee doth callAnd thou dost answer out of everywhere,I in thy allness have my perfect share.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- allness n.
- Totality; completeness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Cry 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 Cry, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-cry.html, id L22373.
Form and metre
A Cry is 28 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 86% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDEFFEGGHHIIJJEEKKLLMM standA · handA · meB · heB · sayC · playC · fashionD · passionD · thoughtE · unknowingF · growingF · broughtE · comeG · dumbG · findH · mindH · thinkI · brinkI · upJ · cupJ · thoughtE · noughtE · spoutK · outK · allL · callL · everywhereM · shareM
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lord, hear my discontent: all blank I stand, | 10 | ···˘˘/···· |
| A mirror polished by thy hand; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Thy sun's beams flash and flame from me-- | 8 | ········ |
| I cannot help it: here I stand, there he! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To one of them I cannot say, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Go, and on yonder water play; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Nor one poor ragged daisy can I fashion-- | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| I do not make the words of this my limping passion! | 13 | ·········/˘/˘ |
| If I should say, Now I will think a thought, | 10 | ·········· |
| Lo, I must wait, unknowing | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| What thought in me is growing, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Until the thing to birth be brought! | 8 | ········ |
| Nor know I then what next will come | 8 | ········ |
| From out the gulf of silence dumb: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I am the door the thing will find | 8 | ········ |
| To pass into the general mind! | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| I cannot say I think-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I only stand upon the thought-well's brink: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| From darkness to the sun the water bubbles up-- | 12 | ·/˘····/˘/˘· |
| lift it in my cup. | 5 | ····· |
| Thou only thinkest--I am thought; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Me and my thought thou thinkest. Nought | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Am I but as a fountain spout | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From which thy water welleth out. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Thou art the only one, the all in all.-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Yet when my soul on thee doth call | 8 | ········ |
| And thou dost answer out of everywhere, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I in thy allness have my perfect share. | 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.