Christmas Day, 1850
Beautiful stories wed with lovely daysLike words and music:--what shall be the taleOf love and nobleness that might availTo express in action what this sweetness says--
The sweetness of a day of airs and raysThat are strange glories on the winter pale?Alas, O beauty, all my fancies fail!I cannot tell a story in thy praise!
Thou hast, thou hast one--set, and sure to chimeWith thee, as with the days of "winter wild;"For Joy like Sorrow loves his blessed feetWho shone from Heaven on Earth this Christmas-timeA Brother and a Saviour, Mary's child!--And so, fair day, thou hast thy story sweet.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- nobleness n.
- The quality or state of being noble; greatness; dignity; magnanimity; elevation of mind, character, or station; nobility; grandeur; stateliness.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
- saviour n.
- One who saves, preserves, or delivers from destruction or danger. [OE. saveour, OF. salveor, F. sauveur, fr. L. salvator to save. See Save, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Christmas Day, 1850 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 Day, 1850, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/christmas-day-1850.html, id L22400.
Form and metre
Christmas Day, 1850 is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 -AA- days · taleA · availA · says
- 2 ABBA raysA · paleB · failB · praiseA
- 3 ABCABC chimeA · wildB · feetC · timeA · childB · sweetC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Beautiful stories wed with lovely days | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| Like words and music:--what shall be the tale | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of love and nobleness that might avail | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| To express in action what this sweetness says-- | 11 | ·˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| The sweetness of a day of airs and rays | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| That are strange glories on the winter pale? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Alas, O beauty, all my fancies fail! | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| I cannot tell a story in thy praise! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thou hast, thou hast one--set, and sure to chime | 10 | ·········· |
| With thee, as with the days of "winter wild;" | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For Joy like Sorrow loves his blessed feet | 10 | ···/˘···˘· |
| Who shone from Heaven on Earth this Christmas-time | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| A Brother and a Saviour, Mary's child!-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And so, fair day, thou hast thy story sweet. | 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.