Love's History
Love, the baby,Crept abroad to pluck a flower:One said, Yes, sir; one said, Maybe;One said, Wait the hour.
Love, the boy,Joined the youngsters at their play:But they gave him little joy,And he went away.
Love, the youth,Roamed the country, quiver-laden;From him fled away in soothMany a man and maiden!
Love, the man,Sought a service all about;But they called him feeble, oneThey could do without.
Love, the aged,Walking, bowed, the shadeless miles,Read a volume many-paged,Full of tears and smiles.
Love, the weary,Tottered down the shelving road:At its foot, lo, Night, the starry,Meeting him from God!
"Love, the holy,"Sang a music in her dome,Sang it softly, sang it slowly,"Love is coming home!"
Words in this poem
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sooth a.
- True; faithful; trustworthy. [OE. soth, AS. s, for san; akin to OS. s, OHG. sand, Icel. sannr, Sw. sann, Dan. sand, Skr. sat, sant, real, genuine, present, being; properly p. pr. from a root]
- shadeless a.
- Being without shade; not shaded.
- shelving a.
- Sloping gradually; inclining; as, a shelving shore.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love's History 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, Love's History, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/love-s-history.html, id L22284.
Form and metre
Love's History is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 5 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 babyA · flowerB · maybeA · hourB
- 2 ABAB boyA · playB · joyA · awayB
- 3 ABAB youthA · ladenB · soothA · maidenB
- 4 -A-A man · aboutA · one · withoutA
- 5 ABAB agedA · milesB · pagedA · smilesB
- 7 ABAB holyA · domeB · slowlyA · homeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love, the baby, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Crept abroad to pluck a flower: | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| One said, Yes, sir; one said, Maybe; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| One said, Wait the hour. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Love, the boy, | 3 | ··· |
| Joined the youngsters at their play: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But they gave him little joy, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And he went away. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Love, the youth, | 3 | ··· |
| Roamed the country, quiver-laden; | 9 | ·˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| From him fled away in sooth | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Many a man and maiden! | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Love, the man, | 3 | ··· |
| Sought a service all about; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But they called him feeble, one | 7 | ····/˘· |
| They could do without. | 5 | ····· |
| Love, the aged, | 3 | ··· |
| Walking, bowed, the shadeless miles, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Read a volume many-paged, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Full of tears and smiles. | 5 | ····· |
| Love, the weary, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Tottered down the shelving road: | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| At its foot, lo, Night, the starry, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Meeting him from God! | 5 | /˘··· |
| "Love, the holy," | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Sang a music in her dome, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Sang it softly, sang it slowly, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| "Love is coming home!" | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.