Doubt Heralding Vision
An angel saw me sitting by a brook,Pleased with the silence, and the melodiesOf wind and water which did fall and rise:He gently stirred his plumes and from them shookAn outworn doubt, which fell on me and tookThe shape of darkness, hiding all the skies,Blinding the sun, but giving to my eyesAn inextinguishable wish to look;When, lo! thick as the buds of spring there came,Crowd upon crowd, informing all the sky,A host of splendours watching silently,With lustrous eyes that wept as if in blame,And waving hands that crossed in lines of flame,And signalled things I hope to hold although I die!
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Doubt Heralding Vision 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, Doubt Heralding Vision, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/doubt-heralding-vision.html, id L22479.
Form and metre
Doubt Heralding Vision is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABBAABBACD-CCD brookA · melodiesB · riseB · shookA · tookA · skiesB · eyesB · lookA · cameC · skyD · silently · blameC · flameC · dieD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An angel saw me sitting by a brook, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Pleased with the silence, and the melodies | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Of wind and water which did fall and rise: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He gently stirred his plumes and from them shook | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| An outworn doubt, which fell on me and took | 10 | ·········· |
| The shape of darkness, hiding all the skies, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Blinding the sun, but giving to my eyes | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| An inextinguishable wish to look; | 10 | ·········· |
| When, lo! thick as the buds of spring there came, | 10 | ·········· |
| Crowd upon crowd, informing all the sky, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| A host of splendours watching silently, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| With lustrous eyes that wept as if in blame, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And waving hands that crossed in lines of flame, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And signalled things I hope to hold although I die! | 12 | ·/˘········· |
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.