A Fear
O Mother Earth, I have a fearWhich I would tell to thee--Softly and gently in thine earWhen the moon and we are three.
Thy grass and flowers are beautiful;Among thy trees I hide;And underneath the moonlight coolThy sea looks broad and wide;
But this I fear--lest thou shouldst growTo me so small and strange,So distant I should never knowOn thee a shade of change,
Although great earthquakes should upliftDeep mountains from their base,And thy continual motion shiftThe lands upon thy face;--
The grass, the flowers, the dews that lieUpon them as before--Driven upwards evermore, lest IShould love these things no more.
Even now thou dimly hast a placeIn deep star galaxies!And I, driven ever on through space,Have lost thee in the skies!
Words in this poem
- uplift v. t.
- To lift or raise aloft; to raise; to elevate; as, to uplift the arm; to uplift a rock.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- dimly adv.
- In a dim or obscure manner; not brightly or clearly; with imperfect sight.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Fear 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 Fear, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-fear.html, id L22418.
Form and metre
A Fear is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 fearA · theeB · earA · threeB
- 2 ABAB beautifulA · hideB · coolA · wideB
- 3 ABAB growA · strangeB · knowA · changeB
- 4 ABAB upliftA · baseB · shiftA · faceB
- 5 ABAB lieA · beforeB · iA · moreB
- 6 ABAB placeA · galaxiesB · spaceA · skiesB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O Mother Earth, I have a fear | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Which I would tell to thee-- | 6 | ······ |
| Softly and gently in thine ear | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| When the moon and we are three. | 7 | ······· |
| Thy grass and flowers are beautiful; | 9 | ···/˘·/˘˘ |
| Among thy trees I hide; | 6 | ······ |
| And underneath the moonlight cool | 8 | ··˘/·/·· |
| Thy sea looks broad and wide; | 6 | ······ |
| But this I fear--lest thou shouldst grow | 8 | ········ |
| To me so small and strange, | 6 | ······ |
| So distant I should never know | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| On thee a shade of change, | 6 | ······ |
| Although great earthquakes should uplift | 8 | ···/··/˘ |
| Deep mountains from their base, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And thy continual motion shift | 9 | ··˘/˘˘/˘· |
| The lands upon thy face;-- | 6 | ······ |
| The grass, the flowers, the dews that lie | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Upon them as before-- | 6 | ······ |
| Driven upwards evermore, lest I | 9 | /˘/˘/˘··· |
| Should love these things no more. | 6 | ······ |
| Even now thou dimly hast a place | 9 | /˘··/˘··· |
| In deep star galaxies! | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And I, driven ever on through space, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Have lost thee in the skies! | 6 | ······ |
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.