King Cole
King Cole he reigned in Aureoland,But the sceptre was seldom in his hand
Far oftener was there his golden cup--He ate too much, but he drank all up!
To be called a king and to be a king,That is one thing and another thing!
So his majesty's head began to shake,And his hands and his feet to swell and ache,
The doctors were called, but they dared not sayYour majesty drinks too much Tokay;
So out of the king's heart died all mirth,And he thought there was nothing good on earth.
Then up rose the fool, whose every wordWas three parts wise and one part absurd.
Nuncle, he said, never mind the gout;I will make you laugh till you laugh it out.
King Cole pushed away his full gold plate:The jester he opened the palace gate,
Brought in a cold man, with hunger grim,And on the dais-edge seated him;
Then caught up the king's own golden plate,And set it beside him: oh, how he ate!
And the king took note, with a pleased surprise,That he ate with his mouth and his cheeks and his eyes,
With his arms and his legs and his body whole,And laughed aloud from his heart and soul.
Then from his lordly chair got up,And carried the man his own gold cup;
The goblet was deep and wide and full,The poor man drank like a cow at a pool.
Said the king to the jester--I call it well doneTo drink with two mouths instead of one!
Said the king to himself, as he took his seat,It is quite as good to feed as to eat!
It is better, I do begin to think,To give to the thirsty than to drink!
And now I have thought of it, said the king,There might be more of this kind of thing!
The fool heard. The king had not long to wait:The fool cried aloud at the palace-gate;
The ragged and wretched, the hungry and thin,Loose in their clothes and tight in their skin,
Gathered in shoals till they filled the hall,And the king and the fool they fed them all;
And as with good things their plates they piledThe king grew merry as a little child.
On the morrow, early, he went abroadAnd sought poor folk in their own abode--
Sought them till evening foggy and dim,Did not wait till they came to him;
And every day after did what he could,Gave them work and gave them food.
Thus he made war on the wintry weather,And his health and the spring came back together.
But, lo, a change had passed on the king,Like the change of the world in that same spring!
His face had grown noble and good to see,And the crown sat well on his majesty.
Now he ate enough, and ate no more,He drank about half what he drank before,
He reigned a real king in Aureoland,Reigned with his head and his heart and his hand.
All this through the fool did come to pass.And every Christmas-eve that was,
The palace-gates stood open wideAnd the poor came in from every side,
And the king rose up and served them duly,And his people loved him very truly.
Words in this poem
- cole n.
- A plant of the Brassica or Cabbage genus; esp. that form of B. [OE. col, caul, AS. cawl, cawel, fr. L. caulis, the stalk or stem of a plant, esp. a cabbage stalk, cabbage, akin to Gr. Cauliflower, Kale.]
- sceptre n.
- A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. [F. sceptre, L. sceptrum, from Gr. shaft. See Shaft, and cf. Scape a stem, shaft.]
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
- tokay n.
- A grape of an oval shape and whitish color. [Named fr. Tokay in Hungary.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
King Cole 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, King Cole, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/king-cole.html, id L22353.
Form and metre
King Cole is 68 lines in 34 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 85% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
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 AA aureolandA · handA
- 2 AA cupA · upA
- 3 AA kingA · thingA
- 4 AA shakeA · acheA
- 5 AA sayA · tokayA
- 6 AA mirthA · earthA
- 7 AA wordA · absurdA
- 8 AA goutA · outA
- 9 AA plateA · gateA
- 10 AA grimA · himA
- 11 AA plateA · ateA
- 12 AA surpriseA · eyesA
- 13 AA wholeA · soulA
- 14 AA upA · cupA
- 16 AA doneA · oneA
- 17 AA seatA · eatA
- 18 AA thinkA · drinkA
- 19 AA kingA · thingA
- 20 AA waitA · gateA
- 21 AA thinA · skinA
- 22 AA hallA · allA
- 23 AA piledA · childA
- 25 AA dimA · himA
- 27 AA weatherA · togetherA
- 28 AA kingA · springA
- 30 AA moreA · beforeA
- 31 AA aureolandA · handA
- 33 AA wideA · sideA
- 34 AA dulyA · trulyA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| King Cole he reigned in Aureoland, | 9 | ····˘···· |
| But the sceptre was seldom in his hand | 10 | ··/˘·/˘··· |
| Far oftener was there his golden cup-- | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| He ate too much, but he drank all up! | 9 | ········· |
| To be called a king and to be a king, | 10 | ·········· |
| That is one thing and another thing! | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| So his majesty's head began to shake, | 10 | ··/˘˘·˘/·· |
| And his hands and his feet to swell and ache, | 10 | ·········· |
| The doctors were called, but they dared not say | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Your majesty drinks too much Tokay; | 9 | ·/˘˘···˘/ |
| So out of the king's heart died all mirth, | 9 | ········· |
| And he thought there was nothing good on earth. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Then up rose the fool, whose every word | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| Was three parts wise and one part absurd. | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Nuncle, he said, never mind the gout; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| I will make you laugh till you laugh it out. | 10 | ·········· |
| King Cole pushed away his full gold plate: | 10 | ···˘˘/···· |
| The jester he opened the palace gate, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Brought in a cold man, with hunger grim, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And on the dais-edge seated him; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Then caught up the king's own golden plate, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And set it beside him: oh, how he ate! | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| And the king took note, with a pleased surprise, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That he ate with his mouth and his cheeks and his eyes, | 12 | ············ |
| With his arms and his legs and his body whole, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And laughed aloud from his heart and soul. | 10 | ··˘˘/····· |
| Then from his lordly chair got up, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And carried the man his own gold cup; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| The goblet was deep and wide and full, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| The poor man drank like a cow at a pool. | 10 | ·········· |
| Said the king to the jester--I call it well done | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| To drink with two mouths instead of one! | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| Said the king to himself, as he took his seat, | 11 | ····˘/····· |
| It is quite as good to feed as to eat! | 10 | ·········· |
| It is better, I do begin to think, | 10 | ··/˘··˘/·· |
| To give to the thirsty than to drink! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| And now I have thought of it, said the king, | 10 | ·········· |
| There might be more of this kind of thing! | 9 | ········· |
| The fool heard. The king had not long to wait: | 10 | ·········· |
| The fool cried aloud at the palace-gate; | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| The ragged and wretched, the hungry and thin, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| Loose in their clothes and tight in their skin, | 9 | ········· |
| Gathered in shoals till they filled the hall, | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| And the king and the fool they fed them all; | 10 | ·········· |
| And as with good things their plates they piled | 10 | ·········˘ |
| The king grew merry as a little child. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| On the morrow, early, he went abroad | 10 | ··/˘/˘··˘/ |
| And sought poor folk in their own abode-- | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Sought them till evening foggy and dim, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Did not wait till they came to him; | 8 | ········ |
| And every day after did what he could, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Gave them work and gave them food. | 7 | ······· |
| Thus he made war on the wintry weather, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| And his health and the spring came back together. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| But, lo, a change had passed on the king, | 10 | ······˘··· |
| Like the change of the world in that same spring! | 10 | ·········· |
| His face had grown noble and good to see, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And the crown sat well on his majesty. | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Now he ate enough, and ate no more, | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| He drank about half what he drank before, | 10 | ·········· |
| He reigned a real king in Aureoland, | 10 | ··˘······· |
| Reigned with his head and his heart and his hand. | 10 | ·········· |
| All this through the fool did come to pass. | 9 | ········· |
| And every Christmas-eve that was, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| The palace-gates stood open wide | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And the poor came in from every side, | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| And the king rose up and served them duly, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And his people loved him very truly. | 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.