Power
Power that is not of God, however great,Is but the downward rushing and the glareOf a swift meteor that hath lost its shareIn the one impulse which doth animateThe parent mass: emblem to me of fate!Which through vast nightly wastes doth onward fare,Wild-eyed and headlong, rent away from prayer--A moment brilliant, then most desolate!And, O my brothers, shall we ever learnFrom all the things we see continuallyThat pride is but the empty mockeryOf what is strong in man! Not so the sternAnd sweet repose of soul which we can earnOnly through reverence and humility!
Words in this poem
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Power 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, Power, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/power.html, id L22486.
Form and metre
Power 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 83%).
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 ABBAABBAC--CC- greatA · glareB · shareB · animateA · fateA · fareB · prayerB · desolateA · learnC · continually · mockery · sternC · earnC · humility
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Power that is not of God, however great, | 10 | /······/˘· |
| Is but the downward rushing and the glare | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Of a swift meteor that hath lost its share | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In the one impulse which doth animate | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The parent mass: emblem to me of fate! | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| Which through vast nightly wastes doth onward fare, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Wild-eyed and headlong, rent away from prayer-- | 10 | ···/··˘/·· |
| A moment brilliant, then most desolate! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And, O my brothers, shall we ever learn | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| From all the things we see continually | 11 | ······˘/˘˘˘ |
| That pride is but the empty mockery | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Of what is strong in man! Not so the stern | 10 | ·········· |
| And sweet repose of soul which we can earn | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Only through reverence and humility! | 11 | /˘·/˘˘·˘/˘˘ |
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.