Fate
Oft, as I rest in quiet peace, am IThrust out at sudden doors, and madly drivenThrough desert solitudes, and thunder-rivenBlack passages which have not any sky:The scourge is on me now, with all the cryOf ancient life that hath with murder striven.How many an anguish hath gone up to heaven,How many a hand in prayer been lifted highWhen the black fate came onward with the rushOf whirlwind, avalanche, or fiery spume!Even at my feet is cleft a shivering tombBeneath the waves; or else, with solemn hushThe graveyard opens, and I feel a crushAs if we were all huddled in one doom!
Words in this poem
- madly adv.
- In a mad manner; without reason or understanding; wildly. [From Mad, a.]
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- avalanche n.
- A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice. [F. avalanche, fr. avaler to descend, to let down, from aval down, downward; ad) + val, L. vallis, valley. See Valley.]
- graveyard n.
- A yard or inclosure for the interment of the dead; a cemetery.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fate 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, Fate, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/fate.html, id L22466.
Form and metre
Fate 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 88%).
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 ABBAAB-ACDDCCD iA · drivenB · rivenB · skyA · cryA · strivenB · heaven · highA · rushC · spumeD · tombD · hushC · crushC · doomD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oft, as I rest in quiet peace, am I | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Thrust out at sudden doors, and madly driven | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Through desert solitudes, and thunder-riven | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Black passages which have not any sky: | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| The scourge is on me now, with all the cry | 10 | ·········· |
| Of ancient life that hath with murder striven. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| How many an anguish hath gone up to heaven, | 11 | ·/·/˘····/˘ |
| How many a hand in prayer been lifted high | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| When the black fate came onward with the rush | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of whirlwind, avalanche, or fiery spume! | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| Even at my feet is cleft a shivering tomb | 10 | /······/˘· |
| Beneath the waves; or else, with solemn hush | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The graveyard opens, and I feel a crush | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| As if we were all huddled in one doom! | 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.