After the Fashion of an Old Emblem
I have long enough been working down in my cellar,Working spade and pick, boring-chisel and drill;I long for wider spaces, airy, clear-dark, and stellar:Successless labour never the love of it did fill.
More profit surely lies in a holy, pure quiescence,In a setting forth of cups to catch the heavenly rain,In a yielding of the being to the ever waiting presence,In a lifting of the eyes upward, homeward again!
Up to my garret, its storm-windows and skylights!There I'll lay me on the floor, and patient let the sun,The moon and the stars, the blueness and the twilightsDo what their pleasure is, and wait till they have done.
But, lo, I hear a waving on the roof of great pinions!'Tis the labour of a windmill, broad-spreading to the wind!Lo, down there goes a. shaft through all the house-dominions!I trace it to a cellar, whose door I cannot find.
But there I hear ever a keen diamond-drill in motion,Now fast and now slow as the wind sits in the sails,Drilling and boring to the far eternal ocean,The living well of all wells whose water never fails.
So now I go no more to the cellar to my labour,But up to my garret where those arms are ever going;There the sky is ever o'er me, and the wind my blessed neighbour,And the prayer-handle ready turns the sails to its blowing.
Blow, blow, my blessed wind; oh, keep ever blowing!Keep the great windmill going full and free;So shall the diamond-drill down below keep goingTill in burst the waters of God's eternal sea.
Words in this poem
- stellar a.
- Of or pertaining to stars; astral; as, a stellar figure; stellary orbs. [L. stellaris, fr. stella a star. See Star.]
- successless a.
- Having no success.
- quiescence n.
- The state or quality of being quiescent. [L. quiescentia, fr. quiescens, p. pr.; cf. F. quiestence. See Quiesce.]
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
- garret n.
- A turret; a watchtower. [OE. garite, garette, watchtower, place of lookout, OF. garite, also meaning, a place of refuge, F. guérite a place of refuge, donjon, sentinel box, fr. OF. gari]
- blueness n.
- The quality of being blue; a blue color. Boyle.
- windmill n.
- A mill operated by the power of the wind, usually by the action of the wind upon oblique vanes or sails which radiate from a horizontal shaft.
- neighbour v. i.
- To dwell in the vicinity; to be a neighbor, or in the neighborhood; to be near.
- 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
After the Fashion of an Old Emblem 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, After the Fashion of an Old Emblem, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/after-the-fashion-of-an-old-emblem.html, id L22431.
Form and metre
After the Fashion of an Old Emblem is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
See other poems in alexandrines.
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 ABAB cellarA · drillB · stellarA · fillB
- 2 ABAB quiescenceA · rainB · presenceA · againB
- 3 -A-A skylights · sunA · twilights · doneA
- 4 ABAB pinionsA · windB · dominionsA · findB
- 5 ABAB motionA · sailsB · oceanA · failsB
- 6 ABAB labourA · goingB · neighbourA · blowingB
- 7 ABAB blowingA · freeB · goingA · seaB
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have long enough been working down in my cellar, | 13 | ···˘/·/˘···/˘ |
| Working spade and pick, boring-chisel and drill; | 11 | /˘···/˘/˘·· |
| I long for wider spaces, airy, clear-dark, and stellar: | 13 | ···//˘/˘···/˘ |
| Successless labour never the love of it did fill. | 12 | ˘/˘/·/······ |
| More profit surely lies in a holy, pure quiescence, | 13 | ·/˘/˘···/˘··· |
| In a setting forth of cups to catch the heavenly rain, | 13 | ··/˘······/˘· |
| In a yielding of the being to the ever waiting presence, | 14 | ··/˘··/··//˘/˘ |
| In a lifting of the eyes upward, homeward again! | 13 | ··/˘···/˘/˘˘/ |
| Up to my garret, its storm-windows and skylights! | 12 | ···/˘··/˘·/· |
| There I'll lay me on the floor, and patient let the sun, | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| The moon and the stars, the blueness and the twilights | 12 | ······/˘··/· |
| Do what their pleasure is, and wait till they have done. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| But, lo, I hear a waving on the roof of great pinions! | 14 | ·····/˘·····/˘ |
| 'Tis the labour of a windmill, broad-spreading to the wind! | 14 | ··/˘··/··/˘··· |
| Lo, down there goes a. shaft through all the house-dominions! | 13 | ··········˘/˘ |
| I trace it to a cellar, whose door I cannot find. | 13 | ·····/˘···˘/· |
| But there I hear ever a keen diamond-drill in motion, | 13 | ····/··/˘··/˘ |
| Now fast and now slow as the wind sits in the sails, | 12 | ············ |
| Drilling and boring to the far eternal ocean, | 12 | /˘·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| The living well of all wells whose water never fails. | 12 | ·/˘·····/˘/· |
| So now I go no more to the cellar to my labour, | 14 | ········/˘··/· |
| But up to my garret where those arms are ever going; | 12 | ····/˘····// |
| There the sky is ever o'er me, and the wind my blessed neighbour, | 14 | ····/·······/˘ |
| And the prayer-handle ready turns the sails to its blowing. | 14 | ···/˘/˘·····/˘ |
| Blow, blow, my blessed wind; oh, keep ever blowing! | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Keep the great windmill going full and free; | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| So shall the diamond-drill down below keep going | 11 | ···/˘·····/ |
| Till in burst the waters of God's eternal sea. | 12 | ····/˘··˘/˘· |
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.