Life or Death?
Is there a secret Joy, that may not weep,For every flower that ends its little span,For every child that groweth up to man,For every captive bird a cage doth keep,For every aching eye that went to sleepLong ages back, when other eyes beganTo see and know and love as now they can,Unravelling God's wonders heap by heap?Or doth the Past lie 'mid EternityIn charnel dens that rot and reek alway,A dismal light for those that go astray,A pit of foul deformity--to be,Beauty, a dreadful source of growth for theeWhen thou wouldst lift thine eyes to greet the day?
Words in this poem
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- reek n.
- A rick. B. Jonson.
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Life or Death? 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, Life or Death?, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/life-or-death.html, id L22480.
Form and metre
Life or Death? 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 91%).
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 ABBAABBA--CDDC weepA · spanB · manB · keepA · sleepA · beganB · canB · heapA · eternity · alway · astrayC · beD · theeD · dayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a secret Joy, that may not weep, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For every flower that ends its little span, | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| For every child that groweth up to man, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| For every captive bird a cage doth keep, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| For every aching eye that went to sleep | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Long ages back, when other eyes began | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| To see and know and love as now they can, | 10 | ·········· |
| Unravelling God's wonders heap by heap? | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Or doth the Past lie 'mid Eternity | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| In charnel dens that rot and reek alway, | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| A dismal light for those that go astray, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| A pit of foul deformity--to be, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Beauty, a dreadful source of growth for thee | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| When thou wouldst lift thine eyes to greet the day? | 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.