Iv.—Drawing Water
Dark, as if it would not tell,Lies the water, still and cool:Dip the bucket in the well,Lift it from the precious pool!
Up it comes all brown and dim,Telling of the twilight sweet:As it rises to the brimSee the sun and water meet!
See the friends each other hail!"Here you are!" cries Master Sun;Mistress Water from the pailFlashes back, alive with fun!
Have you not a tale to tell,Water, as I take you home?Tell me of the hidden wellWhence you, first of all, did come.
Of it you have kept some flavourThrough long paths of darkling strife:Water all has still a savourOf the primal well of life!
Could you show the lovely wayBack and up through sea and skyTo that well? Oh, happy day,I would drink, and never die!
Jesus sits there on its brinkAll the world's great thirst to slake,Offering every one to drinkWho will only come and take!
Lord of wells and waters all,Lord of rains and dewy beads,Unto thee my thirst doth callFor the thing thou know'st it needs!
Come home, water sweet and cool,Gift of God thou always art!Spring up, Well more beautiful,Rise in mine straight from his heart.
Words in this poem
- flavour n.
- That quality of anything which affects the smell; odor; fragrances; as, the flavor of a rose. [OF. fleur, flaur (two syllables), odor, cf. F. fleurer to emit an odor, It. flatore a bad odor, prob. fr. L. flare to bow, whence the sense of exhalation. Cf. B]
- darkling a.
- Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- savour v. t.
- To perceive by the smell or the taste; hence, to perceive; to note. B. Jonson.
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
- 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.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Iv.—Drawing Water 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, Iv.—Drawing Water, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/iv-drawing-water.html, id L22516.
Form and metre
Iv.—Drawing Water is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB tellA · coolB · wellA · poolB
- 2 ABAB dimA · sweetB · brimA · meetB
- 3 ABAB hailA · sunB · pailA · funB
- 4 ABAB tellA · homeB · wellA · comeB
- 5 ABAB flavourA · strifeB · savourA · lifeB
- 6 ABAB wayA · skyB · dayA · dieB
- 7 ABAB brinkA · slakeB · drinkA · takeB
- 8 ABAB allA · beadsB · callA · needsB
- 9 ABAB coolA · artB · beautifulA · heartB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dark, as if it would not tell, | 7 | ······· |
| Lies the water, still and cool: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Dip the bucket in the well, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Lift it from the precious pool! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Up it comes all brown and dim, | 7 | ······· |
| Telling of the twilight sweet: | 7 | /˘··/·· |
| As it rises to the brim | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| See the sun and water meet! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| See the friends each other hail! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| "Here you are!" cries Master Sun; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Mistress Water from the pail | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Flashes back, alive with fun! | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| Have you not a tale to tell, | 7 | ······· |
| Water, as I take you home? | 7 | /˘····· |
| Tell me of the hidden well | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Whence you, first of all, did come. | 7 | ······· |
| Of it you have kept some flavour | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Through long paths of darkling strife: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Water all has still a savour | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Of the primal well of life! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Could you show the lovely way | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Back and up through sea and sky | 7 | ······· |
| To that well? Oh, happy day, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| I would drink, and never die! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Jesus sits there on its brink | 7 | /˘····· |
| All the world's great thirst to slake, | 7 | ······· |
| Offering every one to drink | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Who will only come and take! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Lord of wells and waters all, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Lord of rains and dewy beads, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Unto thee my thirst doth call | 7 | ······· |
| For the thing thou know'st it needs! | 7 | ······· |
| Come home, water sweet and cool, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Gift of God thou always art! | 7 | ····/·· |
| Spring up, Well more beautiful, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Rise in mine straight from his heart. | 7 | ······· |
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.