Christmas, 1880
Great-hearted child, thy very being The Son,Who know'st the hearts of all us prodigals;--For who is prodigal but he who has goneFar from the true to heart it with the false?--Who, who but thou, that, from the animals',Know'st all the hearts, up to the Father's own,Can tell what it would be to be alone!
Alone! No father!--At the very thoughtThou, the eternal light, wast once aghast;A death in death for thee it almost wrought!But thou didst haste, about to breathe thy last,And call'dst out Father ere thy spirit passed,Exhausted in fulfilling not any vow,But doing his will who greater is than thou.
That we might know him, thou didst come and live;That we might find him, thou didst come and die;The son-heart, brother, thy son-being give--We too would love the father perfectly,And to his bosom go back with the cry,Father, into thy hands I give the heartWhich left thee but to learn how good thou art!
There are but two in all the universe--The father and his children--not a third;Nor, all the weary time, fell any curse!Not once dropped from its nest an unfledged birdBut thou wast with it! Never sorrow stirredBut a love-pull it was upon the chainThat draws the children to the father again!
O Jesus Christ, babe, man, eternal son,Take pity! we are poor where thou art rich:Our hearts are small; and yet there is not oneIn all thy father's noisy nursery which,Merry, or mourning in its narrow niche,Needs not thy father's heart, this very now,With all his being's being, even as thou!
Words in this poem
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- nursery n.
- The act of nursing. [Cf. F. nourricerie.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Christmas, 1880 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, Christmas, 1880, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/christmas-1880.html, id L22504.
Form and metre
Christmas, 1880 is 35 lines in 5 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCC, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas; the stanza is the Rhyme royal. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in rhyme royal, 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 -----AA son · prodigals · gone · false · animals · ownA · aloneA
- 2 ABABBCC thoughtA · aghastB · wroughtA · lastB · passedB · vowC · thouC
- 3 ABA-BCC liveA · dieB · giveA · perfectly · cryB · heartC · artC
- 4 ABABBCC universeA · thirdB · curseA · birdB · stirredB · chainC · againC
- 5 ABABBCC sonA · richB · oneA · whichB · nicheB · nowC · thouC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Great-hearted child, thy very being The Son, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| Who know'st the hearts of all us prodigals;-- | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| For who is prodigal but he who has gone | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Far from the true to heart it with the false?-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Who, who but thou, that, from the animals', | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Know'st all the hearts, up to the Father's own, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Can tell what it would be to be alone! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Alone! No father!--At the very thought | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Thou, the eternal light, wast once aghast; | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| A death in death for thee it almost wrought! | 10 | ·······/·· |
| But thou didst haste, about to breathe thy last, | 10 | ·········· |
| And call'dst out Father ere thy spirit passed, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Exhausted in fulfilling not any vow, | 11 | ˘/˘·˘/˘·/˘· |
| But doing his will who greater is than thou. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| That we might know him, thou didst come and live; | 10 | ·········· |
| That we might find him, thou didst come and die; | 10 | ·········· |
| The son-heart, brother, thy son-being give-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| We too would love the father perfectly, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| And to his bosom go back with the cry, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Father, into thy hands I give the heart | 10 | /˘········ |
| Which left thee but to learn how good thou art! | 10 | ·········· |
| There are but two in all the universe-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The father and his children--not a third; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Nor, all the weary time, fell any curse! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Not once dropped from its nest an unfledged bird | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| But thou wast with it! Never sorrow stirred | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| But a love-pull it was upon the chain | 10 | ·········· |
| That draws the children to the father again! | 11 | ···/˘··/˘˘/ |
| O Jesus Christ, babe, man, eternal son, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Take pity! we are poor where thou art rich: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Our hearts are small; and yet there is not one | 10 | /········· |
| In all thy father's noisy nursery which, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Merry, or mourning in its narrow niche, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Needs not thy father's heart, this very now, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With all his being's being, even as thou! | 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.