From Home
Some men there are who cannot spareA single tear until they feelThe last cold pressure, and the heelIs stamped upon the outmost layer.
And, waking, some will sigh to thinkThe clouds have borrowed winter's wing,Sad winter, when the grasses springNo more about the fountain's brink.
And some would call me coward fool:I lay a claim to better blood,But yet a heap of idle mudHath power to make me sorrowful.
Words in this poem
- outmost a.
- Farthest from the middle or interior; farthest outward; outermost. [OE. outemest, utmest, AS. , a superl. fr. out. See Out, Utmost, and cf. Outermost.]
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
From Home 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, From Home, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/from-home.html, id L22374.
Form and metre
From Home is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -AA- spare · feelA · heelA · layer
- 2 ABBA thinkA · wingB · springB · brinkA
- 3 ABBA foolA · bloodB · mudB · sorrowfulA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Some men there are who cannot spare | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A single tear until they feel | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The last cold pressure, and the heel | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is stamped upon the outmost layer. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And, waking, some will sigh to think | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The clouds have borrowed winter's wing, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Sad winter, when the grasses spring | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No more about the fountain's brink. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And some would call me coward fool: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I lay a claim to better blood, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But yet a heap of idle mud | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hath power to make me sorrowful. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘˘ |
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.