Lost and Found
I missed him when the sun began to bend;I found him not when I had lost his rim;With many tears I went in search of him,Climbing high mountains which did still ascend,And gave me echoes when I called my friend;Through cities vast and charnel-houses grim,And high cathedrals where the light was dim,Through books and arts and works without an end,But found him not--the friend whom I had lost.And yet I found him--as I found the lark,A sound in fields I heard but could not mark;I found him nearest when I missed him most;I found him in my heart, a life in frost,A light I knew not till my soul was dark.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lost and Found 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, Lost and Found, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/lost-and-found.html, id L22481.
Form and metre
Lost and Found 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 94%).
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 ABBAABBACDD-CD bendA · rimB · himB · ascendA · friendA · grimB · dimB · endA · lostC · larkD · markD · most · frostC · darkD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I missed him when the sun began to bend; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| I found him not when I had lost his rim; | 10 | ·········· |
| With many tears I went in search of him, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Climbing high mountains which did still ascend, | 10 | /˘·/˘···˘/ |
| And gave me echoes when I called my friend; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Through cities vast and charnel-houses grim, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And high cathedrals where the light was dim, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Through books and arts and works without an end, | 10 | ·········· |
| But found him not--the friend whom I had lost. | 10 | ·········· |
| And yet I found him--as I found the lark, | 10 | ·········· |
| A sound in fields I heard but could not mark; | 10 | ·········· |
| I found him nearest when I missed him most; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I found him in my heart, a life in frost, | 10 | ·········· |
| A light I knew not till my soul was dark. | 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.