Confidence
Lie down upon the ground, thou hopeless one!Press thy face in the grass, and do not speak.Dost feel the green globe whirl? Seven times a weekClimbeth she out of darkness to the sun,Which is her God; seven times she doth not shunAwful eclipse, laying her patient cheekUpon a pillow ghost-beset with shriekOf voices utterless, which rave and runThrough all the star-penumbra, craving lightAnd tidings of the dawn from East and West.Calmly she sleepeth, and her sleep is blestWith heavenly visions, and the joy of NightTreading aloft with moons; nor hath she frightThough cloudy tempests beat upon her breast.
Words in this poem
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- utterless a.
- Incapable of being uttered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Confidence 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, Confidence, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/confidence.html, id L22465.
Form and metre
Confidence is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDCCD oneA · speakB · weekB · sunA · shunA · cheekB · shriekB · runA · lightC · westD · blestD · nightC · frightC · breastD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lie down upon the ground, thou hopeless one! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Press thy face in the grass, and do not speak. | 10 | ·········· |
| Dost feel the green globe whirl? Seven times a week | 10 | ······/··· |
| Climbeth she out of darkness to the sun, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Which is her God; seven times she doth not shun | 10 | ····/····· |
| Awful eclipse, laying her patient cheek | 10 | /˘˘//˘·/˘· |
| Upon a pillow ghost-beset with shriek | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Of voices utterless, which rave and run | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Through all the star-penumbra, craving light | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| And tidings of the dawn from East and West. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Calmly she sleepeth, and her sleep is blest | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| With heavenly visions, and the joy of Night | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Treading aloft with moons; nor hath she fright | 10 | /˘˘/······ |
| Though cloudy tempests beat upon her breast. | 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.