Born of Water
Methought I stood among the stars alone,Watching a grey parched orb which onward flewHalf blinded by the dusty winds that blew,Empty as Death and barren as a stone,The pleasant sound of water all unknown!When, as I looked in wonderment, there grew,High in the air above, a drop of dew,Which, gathering slowly through long cycles, shoneLike a great tear; and then at last it fellClasping the orb, which drank it greedily,With a delicious noise and upward swellOf sweet cool joy that tossed me like a sea;And then the thick life sprang as from a grave,With trees, flowers, boats upon the bounding wave!
Words in this poem
- wonderment n.
- Surprise; astonishment; a wonderful appearance; a wonder.
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Born of Water 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, Born of Water, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/born-of-water.html, id L22476.
Form and metre
Born of Water is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABBAABBAC-C-DD aloneA · flewB · blewB · stoneA · unknownA · grewB · dewB · shoneA · fellC · greedily · swellC · sea · graveD · waveD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Methought I stood among the stars alone, | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| Watching a grey parched orb which onward flew | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Half blinded by the dusty winds that blew, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Empty as Death and barren as a stone, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| The pleasant sound of water all unknown! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| When, as I looked in wonderment, there grew, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| High in the air above, a drop of dew, | 10 | ·········· |
| Which, gathering slowly through long cycles, shone | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Like a great tear; and then at last it fell | 10 | ·········· |
| Clasping the orb, which drank it greedily, | 10 | /˘·····/˘˘ |
| With a delicious noise and upward swell | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of sweet cool joy that tossed me like a sea; | 10 | ·········· |
| And then the thick life sprang as from a grave, | 10 | ·········· |
| With trees, flowers, boats upon the bounding wave! | 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.