False Prophets
Would-be prophets tell usWe shall not re-knowThem that walked our fellowsIn the ways below!
Smoking, smouldering TophetsSteaming hopeless plaints!Dreary, mole-eyed prophets!Mean, skin-pledging saints!
Knowing not the FatherWhat their prophecies!Grapes of such none gather,Only thorns and lies.
Loving thus the brother,How the Father tell?Go without each otherTo your heavenly hell!
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,]
- smouldering a.
- Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
False Prophets 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, False Prophets, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/false-prophets.html, id L22300.
Form and metre
False Prophets is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 -A-A us · knowA · fellows · belowA
- 2 ABAB tophetsA · plaintsB · prophetsA · saintsB
- 3 -A-A father · propheciesA · gather · liesA
- 4 ABAB brotherA · tellB · otherA · hellB
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Would-be prophets tell us | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| We shall not re-know | 5 | ····· |
| Them that walked our fellows | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| In the ways below! | 5 | ····· |
| Smoking, smouldering Tophets | 7 | /˘····· |
| Steaming hopeless plaints! | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| Dreary, mole-eyed prophets! | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Mean, skin-pledging saints! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Knowing not the Father | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| What their prophecies! | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| Grapes of such none gather, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Only thorns and lies. | 5 | /˘··· |
| Loving thus the brother, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| How the Father tell? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Go without each other | 6 | ····/˘ |
| To your heavenly hell! | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
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.