Christmas-Day, 1878
I think I might be weary of this dayThat comes inevitably every year,The same when I was young and strong and gay,The same when I am old and growing sere--I should grow weary of it every yearBut that thou comest to me every day.
I shall grow weary if thou every dayBut come to me, Lord of eternal life;I shall grow weary thus to watch and pray,For ever out of labour into strife;Take everlasting house with me, my life,And I shall be new-born this Christmas-day.
Thou art the Eternal Son, and born no day,But ever he the Father, thou the Son;I am his child, but being born alway--How long, O Lord, how long till it be done?Be thou from endless years to years the Son--And I thy brother, new-born every day.
Words in this poem
- inevitably adv.
- Without possibility of escape or evasion; unavoidably; certainly.
- sere n.
- Claw; talon. Chapman. [F. serre.]
- 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,]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Christmas-Day, 1878 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, 1878, 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-1878.html, id L22364.
Form and metre
Christmas-Day, 1878 is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ABABBA dayA · yearB · gayA · sereB · yearB · dayA
- 2 ABABBA dayA · lifeB · prayA · strifeB · lifeB · dayA
- 3 AB-BBA dayA · sonB · alway · doneB · sonB · dayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I think I might be weary of this day | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That comes inevitably every year, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘· |
| The same when I was young and strong and gay, | 10 | ·········· |
| The same when I am old and growing sere-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I should grow weary of it every year | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But that thou comest to me every day. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I shall grow weary if thou every day | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But come to me, Lord of eternal life; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| I shall grow weary thus to watch and pray, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For ever out of labour into strife; | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Take everlasting house with me, my life, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And I shall be new-born this Christmas-day. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thou art the Eternal Son, and born no day, | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| But ever he the Father, thou the Son; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I am his child, but being born alway-- | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| How long, O Lord, how long till it be done? | 10 | ·········· |
| Be thou from endless years to years the Son-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And I thy brother, new-born every day. | 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.