A Mammon-Marriage
The croak of a raven hoar!A dog's howl, kennel-tied!Loud shuts the carriage-door:The two are away on their ghastly rideTo Death's salt shore!
Where are the love and the grace?The bridegroom is thirsty and cold!The bride's skull sharpens her face!But the coachman is driving, jubilant, bold,The devil's pace.
The horses shivered and shookWaiting gaunt and haggardWith sorry and evil look;But swift as a drunken wind they staggered'Longst Lethe brook.
Long since, they ran no more;Heavily pulling they diedOn the sand of the hopeless shoreWhere never swelled or sank a tide,And the salt burns sore.
Flat their skeletons lie,White shadows on shining sand;The crusted reins go highTo the crumbling coachman's bony handOn his knees awry.
Side by side, jarring no more,Day and night side by side,Each by a doorless door,Motionless sit the bridegroom and brideOn the Dead-Sea-shore.
Words in this poem
- croak v. i.
- To make a low, hoarse noise in the throat, as a frog, a raven, or a crow; hence, to make any hoarse, dismal sound. [From the primitive of AS. cracettan to croak as a raven; akin to G. kr to croak, and to E. creak, crake.]
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
- kennel n.
- The water course of a street; a little canal or channel; a gutter; also, a puddle. Bp. Hall. [See Channel, Canal.]
- bridegroom n.
- A man newly married, or just about to be married. [OE. bridegome, brudgume, AS. br (akin to OS. br, D. bruidegom, bruigom, OHG. pr, MHG. briutegome, G. bräutigam); AS. br bride + guma man, akin to Goth. guma, Ic]
- coachman n.
- A man whose business is to drive a coach or carriage.
- jubilant a.
- Uttering songs of triumph; shouting with joy; triumphant; exulting. [L. jubilans, -antis, p. pr. of jubilare to shout for joy: cf. F. jubila. See Jubilate.]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- gaunt a.
- Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. [Cf. Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W. gwan weak.]
- haggard a.
- Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
- lethe n.
- A river of Hades whose waters when drunk caused forgetfulness of the past.
- crusted a.
- Incrusted; covered with, or containing, crust; as, old, crusted port wine.
- jarring a.
- Shaking; disturbing; discordant. [See Jar.]
- doorless a.
- Without a door.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Mammon-Marriage 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 Mammon-Marriage, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-mammon-marriage.html, id L22282.
Form and metre
A Mammon-Marriage is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABA. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABABA hoarA · tiedB · doorA · rideB · shoreA
- 2 ABABA graceA · coldB · faceA · boldB · paceA
- 3 ABABA shookA · haggardB · lookA · staggeredB · brookA
- 4 ABABA moreA · diedB · shoreA · tideB · soreA
- 5 ABABA lieA · sandB · highA · handB · awryA
- 6 ABABA moreA · sideB · doorA · brideB · shoreA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The croak of a raven hoar! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| A dog's howl, kennel-tied! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Loud shuts the carriage-door: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The two are away on their ghastly ride | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| To Death's salt shore! | 4 | ···· |
| Where are the love and the grace? | 7 | ······· |
| The bridegroom is thirsty and cold! | 8 | ·/··/˘·· |
| The bride's skull sharpens her face! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But the coachman is driving, jubilant, bold, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘/˘· |
| The devil's pace. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The horses shivered and shook | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Waiting gaunt and haggard | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| With sorry and evil look; | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| But swift as a drunken wind they staggered | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| 'Longst Lethe brook. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Long since, they ran no more; | 6 | ······ |
| Heavily pulling they died | 7 | /˘˘/˘·· |
| On the sand of the hopeless shore | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where never swelled or sank a tide, | 9 | ·/˘·˘···· |
| And the salt burns sore. | 5 | ····· |
| Flat their skeletons lie, | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| White shadows on shining sand; | 7 | ·/··/˘· |
| The crusted reins go high | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To the crumbling coachman's bony hand | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘/˘· |
| On his knees awry. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Side by side, jarring no more, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Day and night side by side, | 6 | ······ |
| Each by a doorless door, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Motionless sit the bridegroom and bride | 9 | /˘˘··/··· |
| On the Dead-Sea-shore. | 5 | ····· |
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.