A Song-Sermon: Rondel
Would that thou hid me in the graveAnd kept me with death's gaoler-care;Until thy wrath away should wearA sentence fixed thy prisoner gave!I would endure with patience braveSo thou remembered I was there!Would that thou hid me in the grave,And kept me with death's gaoler-care!
To see thy creature thou wouldst crave--Desire thy handiwork so fair;Then wouldst thou call through death's dank airAnd I would answer from the cave!Would that thou hid me in the grave,And kept me with death's gaoler-care!
Words in this poem
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
- handiwork n.
- Work done by the hands; hence, any work done personally. [OE. handiwerc, AS. handgeweorc; hand hand + geweorc work; prefix ge- + weorc. See Work.]
- dank n.
- Moisture; humidity; water.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song-Sermon: Rondel 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 Song-Sermon: Rondel, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-song-sermon-rondel.html, id L22425.
Form and metre
A Song-Sermon: Rondel is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 1 ABBAABAB graveA · careB · wearB · gaveA · braveA · thereB · graveA · careB
- 2 ABBAAB craveA · fairB · airB · caveA · graveA · careB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Would that thou hid me in the grave | 8 | ········ |
| And kept me with death's gaoler-care; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Until thy wrath away should wear | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| A sentence fixed thy prisoner gave! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I would endure with patience brave | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| So thou remembered I was there! | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Would that thou hid me in the grave, | 8 | ········ |
| And kept me with death's gaoler-care! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To see thy creature thou wouldst crave-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Desire thy handiwork so fair; | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| Then wouldst thou call through death's dank air | 8 | ········ |
| And I would answer from the cave! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Would that thou hid me in the grave, | 8 | ········ |
| And kept me with death's gaoler-care! | 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.