A Lown Nicht
Rose o' my hert,Open yer leaves to the lampin mune;Into the curls lat her keek an' dert,She'll tak the colour but gie ye tune.
Buik o' my brain,Open yer faulds to the starry signs;Lat the e'en o' the holy luik an' strain,Lat them glimmer an' score atween the lines.
Cup o' my soul,Goud an' diamond an' ruby cup,Ye're noucht ava but a toom dry bowlTill the wine o' the kingdom fill ye up.
Conscience-glass,Mirror the en'less All in thee;Melt the boundered and make it passInto the tideless, shoreless sea.
Warl o' my life,Swing thee roun thy sunny track;Fire an' win' an' water an' strife,Carry them a' to the glory back.
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- atween adv.
- Between. Spenser. [See Atwain, and cf. Between.]
- toom a.
- Empty. [Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.] Wyclif. [OE. tom, fr. Icel. tomr; akin to Dan. & Sw. tom, As. tome, adv. Cf. Teem to pour.]
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- tideless a.
- Having no tide.
- shoreless a.
- Having no shore or coast; of indefinite or unlimited extent; as, a shoreless ocean. Young.
- roun v. i.
- To whisper. [obs.] Gower. [AS. r, fr. r a rune, secret, mystery; akin to G. raunen to whisper. See Rune.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Lown Nicht 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 Lown Nicht, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-lown-nicht.html, id L22554.
Form and metre
A Lown Nicht is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 hertA · muneB · dertA · tuneB
- 2 ABAB brainA · signsB · strainA · linesB
- 3 ABAB soulA · cupB · bowlA · upB
- 4 ABAB glassA · theeB · passA · seaB
- 5 ABAB lifeA · trackB · strifeA · backB
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Rose o' my hert, | 4 | ···· |
| Open yer leaves to the lampin mune; | 9 | /˘······· |
| Into the curls lat her keek an' dert, | 9 | ········· |
| She'll tak the colour but gie ye tune. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Buik o' my brain, | 4 | ···· |
| Open yer faulds to the starry signs; | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| Lat the e'en o' the holy luik an' strain, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Lat them glimmer an' score atween the lines. | 10 | ··/˘··˘/·· |
| Cup o' my soul, | 4 | ···· |
| Goud an' diamond an' ruby cup, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Ye're noucht ava but a toom dry bowl | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Till the wine o' the kingdom fill ye up. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Conscience-glass, | 3 | /˘· |
| Mirror the en'less All in thee; | 8 | /˘······ |
| Melt the boundered and make it pass | 9 | ··/˘˘···· |
| Into the tideless, shoreless sea. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Warl o' my life, | 4 | ···· |
| Swing thee roun thy sunny track; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Fire an' win' an' water an' strife, | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| Carry them a' to the glory back. | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
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.