Not Understood
Tumultuous rushing o'er the outstretched plains;A wildered maze of comets and of suns;The blood of changeless God that ever runsWith quick diastole up the immortal veins;A phantom host that moves and works in chains;A monstrous fiction, which, collapsing, stunsThe mind to stupor and amaze at once;A tragedy which that man best explainsWho rushes blindly on his wild careerWith trampling hoofs and sound of mailed war,Who will not nurse a life to win a tear,But is extinguished like a falling star;--Such will at times this life appear to meUntil I learn to read more perfectly.
Words in this poem
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- changeless a.
- That can not be changed; constant; as, a changeless purpose.
- diastole n.
- The rhythmical expansion or dilatation of the heart and arteries; -- correlative to systole, or contraction.
- amaze v. t.
- To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze. [Pref. a- + maze.]
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- career n.
- A race course: the ground run over. [F. carrière race course, high road, street, fr. L. carrus wagon. See Car.]
- mailed a.
- Protected by an external coat, or covering, of scales or plates.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Not Understood 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, Not Understood, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/not-understood.html, id L22445.
Form and metre
Not Understood is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See 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 ABBAAB-AC-C--- plainsA · sunsB · runsB · veinsA · chainsA · stunsB · once · explainsA · careerC · war · tearC · star · me · perfectly
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tumultuous rushing o'er the outstretched plains; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··˘/· |
| A wildered maze of comets and of suns; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The blood of changeless God that ever runs | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With quick diastole up the immortal veins; | 12 | ··˘/˘···˘/˘· |
| A phantom host that moves and works in chains; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A monstrous fiction, which, collapsing, stuns | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| The mind to stupor and amaze at once; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| A tragedy which that man best explains | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| Who rushes blindly on his wild career | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| With trampling hoofs and sound of mailed war, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘· |
| Who will not nurse a life to win a tear, | 10 | ·········· |
| But is extinguished like a falling star;-- | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Such will at times this life appear to me | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Until I learn to read more perfectly. | 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.