A Year Song
Sighing above,Rustling below,Thorough the woodsThe winds go.Beneath, dead crowds;Above, life bare;And the besom tempestSweeps the air:Heart, leave thy woe:Let the dead things go.
Through the brownGold doth push;Misty greenVeils the bush.Here a twitter,There a croak!They are coming--The spring-folk!Heart, be not numb;Let the live things come.
Through the beechThe winds go,With gentle speech,Long and slow.The grass is fine,And soft to lie in:The sun doth shineThe blue sky in:Heart, be alive;Let the new things thrive.
Round again!Here art thou,A rimy fruitOn a bare bough!Winter comes,Winter and snow;And a weary sighingTo fall and go!Heart, thy hour shall be;Thy dead will comfort thee.
Words in this poem
- besom n.
- A brush of twigs for sweeping; a broom; anything which sweeps away or destroys. [OE. besme, besum, AS. besma; akin to D. bezem, OHG pesamo, G. besen; of uncertain origin.]
- twitter n.
- One who twits, or reproaches; an upbraider. [From Twit.]
- 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.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- rimy a.
- Abounding with rime; frosty.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Year Song 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 Year Song, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-year-song.html, id L22493.
Form and metre
A Year Song is 40 lines in 4 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
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 -A-A-B-BAA above · belowA · woods · goA · crowds · bareB · tempest · airB · woeA · goA
- 2 -A-A-B-BCC brown · pushA · green · bushA · twitter · croakB · coming · folkB · numbC · comeC
- 3 ABABCDCDEE beechA · goB · speechA · slowB · fineC · inD · shineC · inD · aliveE · thriveE
- 4 -A-A-B-BCC again · thouA · fruit · boughA · comes · snowB · sighing · goB · beC · theeC
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sighing above, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Rustling below, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Thorough the woods | 4 | /˘·· |
| The winds go. | 3 | ··· |
| Beneath, dead crowds; | 4 | ···· |
| Above, life bare; | 4 | ···· |
| And the besom tempest | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Sweeps the air: | 3 | ··· |
| Heart, leave thy woe: | 4 | ···· |
| Let the dead things go. | 5 | ····· |
| Through the brown | 3 | ··· |
| Gold doth push; | 3 | ··· |
| Misty green | 3 | /˘· |
| Veils the bush. | 3 | ··· |
| Here a twitter, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| There a croak! | 3 | ··· |
| They are coming-- | 4 | ··/˘ |
| The spring-folk! | 3 | ··· |
| Heart, be not numb; | 4 | ···· |
| Let the live things come. | 5 | ····· |
| Through the beech | 3 | ··· |
| The winds go, | 3 | ··· |
| With gentle speech, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Long and slow. | 3 | ··· |
| The grass is fine, | 4 | ···· |
| And soft to lie in: | 5 | ····· |
| The sun doth shine | 4 | ···· |
| The blue sky in: | 4 | ···· |
| Heart, be alive; | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Let the new things thrive. | 5 | ····· |
| Round again! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Here art thou, | 3 | ··· |
| A rimy fruit | 4 | ·/˘· |
| On a bare bough! | 4 | ···· |
| Winter comes, | 3 | /˘· |
| Winter and snow; | 4 | /˘·· |
| And a weary sighing | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| To fall and go! | 4 | ···· |
| Heart, thy hour shall be; | 5 | ··/·· |
| Thy dead will comfort thee. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.