A Sang o' Zion
Ane by ane they gang awa;The getherer gethers grit and sma':Ane by ane maks ane and a'!
Aye whan ane sets doon the cupAne ahint maun tak it up:A' thegither they will sup!
Golden-heidit, ripe, and strang,Shorn will be the hairst or lang:Syne begins a better sang!
Words in this poem
- strang a.
- Strong. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Halliwell. [See Strong.]
- syne adv.
- Afterwards; since; ago. R. of Brunne. [See Since.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Sang o' Zion 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 Sang o' Zion, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-sang-o-zion.html, id L22535.
Form and metre
A Sang o' Zion is 9 lines in 3 stanzas of 3 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic 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.
- 2 AAA cupA · upA · supA
- 3 AAA strangA · langA · sangA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ane by ane they gang awa; | 7 | ······· |
| The getherer gethers grit and sma': | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Ane by ane maks ane and a'! | 7 | ······· |
| Aye whan ane sets doon the cup | 7 | ······· |
| Ane ahint maun tak it up: | 7 | ······· |
| A' thegither they will sup! | 7 | ······· |
| Golden-heidit, ripe, and strang, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Shorn will be the hairst or lang: | 7 | ······· |
| Syne begins a better sang! | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
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.