Blind Sorrow
"My life is drear; walking I labour sore;The heart in me is heavy as a stone;And of my sorrows this the icy core:Life is so wide, and I am all alone!"
Thou did'st walk so, with heaven-born eyes down bentUpon the earth's gold-rosy, radiant clay,That thou had'st seen no star in all God's tentHad not thy tears made pools first on the way.
Ah, little knowest thou the tender careIn a love-plenteous cloak around thee thrown!Full many a dim-seen, saving mountain-stairToiling thou climb'st--but not one step alone!
Lift but thy languid head and see thy guide;Let thy steps go in his, nor choose thine own;Then soon wilt thou, thine eyes with wonder wide,Cry, Now I know I never was alone!
Words in this poem
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Blind Sorrow 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, Blind Sorrow, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/blind-sorrow.html, id L22310.
Form and metre
Blind Sorrow is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 soreA · stoneB · coreA · aloneB
- 2 ABAB bentA · clayB · tentA · wayB
- 3 ABAB careA · thrownB · stairA · aloneB
- 4 ABAB guideA · ownB · wideA · aloneB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "My life is drear; walking I labour sore; | 10 | ····/˘·/·· |
| The heart in me is heavy as a stone; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And of my sorrows this the icy core: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Life is so wide, and I am all alone!" | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Thou did'st walk so, with heaven-born eyes down bent | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Upon the earth's gold-rosy, radiant clay, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| That thou had'st seen no star in all God's tent | 10 | ·········· |
| Had not thy tears made pools first on the way. | 10 | ·········· |
| Ah, little knowest thou the tender care | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| In a love-plenteous cloak around thee thrown! | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| Full many a dim-seen, saving mountain-stair | 10 | ·/···/˘/˘· |
| Toiling thou climb'st--but not one step alone! | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Lift but thy languid head and see thy guide; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Let thy steps go in his, nor choose thine own; | 10 | ·········· |
| Then soon wilt thou, thine eyes with wonder wide, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Cry, Now I know I never was alone! | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
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.