A Noonday Melody
Everything goes to its rest;The hills are asleep in the noon;And life is as still in its nestAs the moon when she looks on a moonIn the depth of a calm river's breastAs it steals through a midnight in June.
The streams have forgotten the seaIn the dream of their musical sound;The sunlight is thick on the tree,And the shadows lie warm on the ground,--So still, you may watch them and seeEvery breath that awakens around.
The churchyard lies still in the heat,With its handful of mouldering bone,As still as the long stalk of wheatIn the shadow that sits by the stone,As still as the grass at my feetWhen I walk in the meadows alone.
The waves are asleep on the main,And the ships are asleep on the wave;And the thoughts are as still in my brainAs the echo that sleeps in the cave;All rest from their labour and pain--Then why should not I in my grave?
Words in this poem
- churchyard n.
- The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery.
- handful n.
- As much as the hand will grasp or contain. [AS. handfull.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Noonday Melody 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 Noonday Melody, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-noonday-melody.html, id L22395.
Form and metre
A Noonday Melody is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABAB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 ABABAB restA · noonB · nestA · moonB · breastA · juneB
- 2 ABABAB seaA · soundB · treeA · groundB · seeA · aroundB
- 3 ABABAB heatA · boneB · wheatA · stoneB · feetA · aloneB
- 4 ABABAB mainA · waveB · brainA · caveB · painA · graveB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Everything goes to its rest; | 7 | /˘····· |
| The hills are asleep in the noon; | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| And life is as still in its nest | 8 | ········ |
| As the moon when she looks on a moon | 9 | ········· |
| In the depth of a calm river's breast | 9 | ······/˘· |
| As it steals through a midnight in June. | 9 | ·····/··· |
| The streams have forgotten the sea | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| In the dream of their musical sound; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The sunlight is thick on the tree, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And the shadows lie warm on the ground,-- | 9 | ··/······ |
| So still, you may watch them and see | 8 | ········ |
| Every breath that awakens around. | 9 | /˘··˘/˘·· |
| The churchyard lies still in the heat, | 8 | ·/······ |
| With its handful of mouldering bone, | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| As still as the long stalk of wheat | 8 | ········ |
| In the shadow that sits by the stone, | 9 | ··/······ |
| As still as the grass at my feet | 8 | ········ |
| When I walk in the meadows alone. | 9 | ·····/·˘/ |
| The waves are asleep on the main, | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| And the ships are asleep on the wave; | 9 | ····˘/··· |
| And the thoughts are as still in my brain | 9 | ········· |
| As the echo that sleeps in the cave; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| All rest from their labour and pain-- | 8 | ····/··· |
| Then why should not I in my grave? | 8 | ········ |
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.