Equity
No bird can sing in tune but that the LordSits throned in equity above the heaven,And holds the righteous balance always even;No heart can true response to love affordWherein from one to eight not every chordIs yet attuned by the spirits seven:For tuneful no bird sings but that the LordIs throned in equity above high heaven.
Oh heart, by wrong unfilial scathed and scored,And from thy humble throne with mazedness driven,Take courage: when thy wrongs thou hast forgiven,Thy rights in love thy God will see restored:No bird could sing in tune but that the LordSits throned in equity above the heaven.
Words in this poem
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- unfilial a.
- Unsuitable to a son or a daughter; undutiful; not becoming a child.
- mazedness n.
- The condition of being mazed; confusion; astonishment.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Equity 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, Equity, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/equity.html, id L22522.
Form and metre
Equity is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 AB-AABAB lordA · heavenB · even · affordA · chordA · sevenB · lordA · heavenB
- 2 ABBAA- scoredA · drivenB · forgivenB · restoredA · lordA · heaven
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No bird can sing in tune but that the Lord | 10 | ·········· |
| Sits throned in equity above the heaven, | 11 | ···/˘˘···/˘ |
| And holds the righteous balance always even; | 11 | ···/˘/˘/·/˘ |
| No heart can true response to love afford | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Wherein from one to eight not every chord | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Is yet attuned by the spirits seven: | 10 | ··˘/··/˘/˘ |
| For tuneful no bird sings but that the Lord | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Is throned in equity above high heaven. | 11 | ···/˘˘···/˘ |
| Oh heart, by wrong unfilial scathed and scored, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And from thy humble throne with mazedness driven, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘˘/ |
| Take courage: when thy wrongs thou hast forgiven, | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| Thy rights in love thy God will see restored: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| No bird could sing in tune but that the Lord | 10 | ·········· |
| Sits throned in equity above the heaven. | 11 | ···/˘˘···/˘ |
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.