Awake!
The stars are all watching;God's angel is catchingAt thy skirts in the darkness deep!Gold hinges grating,The mighty dead waiting,Why dost thou sleep?
Years without number,Ages of slumber,Stiff in the track of the infinite One!Dead, can I think it?Dropt like a trinket,A thing whose uses are done!
White wings are crossing,Glad waves are tossing,The earth flames out in crimson and greenSpring is appearing,Summer is nearing--Where hast thou been?
Down in some cavern,Death's sleepy tavern,Housing, carousing with spectres of night?There is my right hand!Grasp it full tight andSpring to the light.
Wonder, oh, wonder!How the life-thunderBursts on his ear in horror and dread!Happy shapes meet him;Heaven and earth greet him:Life from the dead!
Words in this poem
- trinket v. i.
- To give trinkets; hence, to court favor; to intrigue.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- carousing a.
- That carouses; relating to a carouse.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Awake! 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, Awake!, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/awake.html, id L22437.
Form and metre
Awake! is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is dactylic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in dactylic 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 --ABBA watching · catching · deepA · gratingB · waitingB · sleepA
- 2 AABCCB numberA · slumberA · oneB · itC · trinketC · doneB
- 3 AA-BB- crossingA · tossingA · green · appearingB · nearingB · been
- 4 AABCCB cavernA · tavernA · nightB · handC · andC · lightB
- 5 AABCCB wonderA · thunderA · dreadB · himC · himC · deadB
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 dactylic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The stars are all watching; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| God's angel is catching | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| At thy skirts in the darkness deep! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Gold hinges grating, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| The mighty dead waiting, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Why dost thou sleep? | 4 | ···· |
| Years without number, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Ages of slumber, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Stiff in the track of the infinite One! | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Dead, can I think it? | 5 | ····· |
| Dropt like a trinket, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| A thing whose uses are done! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| White wings are crossing, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Glad waves are tossing, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The earth flames out in crimson and green | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Spring is appearing, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Summer is nearing-- | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Where hast thou been? | 4 | ···· |
| Down in some cavern, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Death's sleepy tavern, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Housing, carousing with spectres of night? | 10 | /˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| There is my right hand! | 5 | ····· |
| Grasp it full tight and | 5 | ····· |
| Spring to the light. | 4 | ···· |
| Wonder, oh, wonder! | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| How the life-thunder | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Bursts on his ear in horror and dread! | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Happy shapes meet him; | 5 | /˘··· |
| Heaven and earth greet him: | 5 | /···· |
| Life from the dead! | 4 | ···· |
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.