Lessons for a Child III
Root met root in the spongy ground,Searching each for food:Each turned aside, and away it wound.And each got something good.
Sound met sound in the wavy air--That made a little to-do!They jostled not long, but were quick and fair;Each found its path and flew.
Drop dashed on drop, as the rain-shower fell;They joined and sank below:In gathered thousands they rose a well,With a singing overflow.
Wind met wind in a garden green,They began to push and fret:A tearing whirlwind arose between:There love lies bleeding yet.
About this text
Lessons for a Child III 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, Lessons for a Child III, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/lessons-for-a-child-iii.html, id L22332.
Form and metre
Lessons for a Child III is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in common measure.
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- groundA · food · woundA · good
- 2 ABAB airA · doB · fairA · flewB
- 3 ABAB fellA · belowB · wellA · overflowB
- 4 ABAB greenA · fretB · betweenA · yetB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Root met root in the spongy ground, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Searching each for food: | 5 | /˘··· |
| Each turned aside, and away it wound. | 10 | ··˘˘/·˘/·· |
| And each got something good. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sound met sound in the wavy air-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That made a little to-do! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| They jostled not long, but were quick and fair; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Each found its path and flew. | 6 | ······ |
| Drop dashed on drop, as the rain-shower fell; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| They joined and sank below: | 6 | ······ |
| In gathered thousands they rose a well, | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘···· |
| With a singing overflow. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Wind met wind in a garden green, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| They began to push and fret: | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| A tearing whirlwind arose between: | 9 | ·/˘/·˘/·· |
| There love lies bleeding yet. | 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.