On the Source of the Arve
Hears't thou the dash of water, loud and hoarse,With its perpetual tidings upward climb,Struggling against the wind? Oh, how sublime!For not in vain from its portentous sourceThy heart, wild stream, hath yearned for its full force,But from thine ice-toothed caverns, dark as time,At last thou issuest, dancing to the rimeOf thy outvolleying freedom! Lo, thy courseLies straight before thee as the arrow flies!Right to the ocean-plains away, away!Thy parent waits thee, and her sunset dyesAre ruffled for thy coming, and the grayOf all her glittering borders flashes highAgainst the glittering rocks!--oh, haste, and fly!
Words in this poem
- portentous a.
- Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreschadowing, esp. foreschadowing ill; ominous. [L. portentosus.]
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Source of the Arve 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, On the Source of the Arve, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/on-the-source-of-the-arve.html, id L22464.
Form and metre
On the Source of the Arve is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABBAABBACDCDEE hoarseA · climbB · sublimeB · sourceA · forceA · timeB · rimeB · courseA · fliesC · awayD · dyesC · grayD · highE · flyE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hears't thou the dash of water, loud and hoarse, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With its perpetual tidings upward climb, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Struggling against the wind? Oh, how sublime! | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| For not in vain from its portentous source | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Thy heart, wild stream, hath yearned for its full force, | 10 | ·········· |
| But from thine ice-toothed caverns, dark as time, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| At last thou issuest, dancing to the rime | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Of thy outvolleying freedom! Lo, thy course | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Lies straight before thee as the arrow flies! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Right to the ocean-plains away, away! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Thy parent waits thee, and her sunset dyes | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Are ruffled for thy coming, and the gray | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of all her glittering borders flashes high | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Against the glittering rocks!--oh, haste, and fly! | 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.