Quiet Dead!
Quiet, quiet dead,Have ye aught to sayFrom your hidden bedIn the earthy clay?
Fathers, children, mothers,Ye are very quiet;Can ye shout, my brothers?I would know you by it!
Have ye any wordsThat are like to ours?Have ye any birds?Have ye any flowers?
Could ye rise a minuteWhen the sun is warm?I would know you in it,I would take no harm.
I am half afraidIn the ghostly night;If ye all obeyedI should fear you quite.
But when day is breakingIn the purple eastI would meet you waking--One of you at least--
When the sun is tippingEvery stony block,And the sun is slippingDown the weathercock.
Quiet, quiet dead,I will not perplex you;What my tongue hath saidHaply it may vex you!
Yet I hear you speakingWith a quiet speech,As if ye were seekingBetter things to teach:
"Wait a little longer,Suffer and endureTill your heart is strongerAnd your eyes are pure--
A little longer, brother,With your fellow-men:We will meet each otherOtherwhere again."
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- tipping n.
- A distinct articulation given in playing quick notes on the flute, by striking the tongue against the roof of the mouth; double- tonguing.
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- otherwhere adv.
- In or to some other place, or places; elsewhere.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Quiet Dead! 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, Quiet Dead!, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/quiet-dead.html, id L22433.
Form and metre
Quiet Dead! is 44 lines in 11 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 10 of its 11 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 deadA · sayB · bedA · clayB
- 2 ABAB mothersA · quietB · brothersA · itB
- 3 ABAB wordsA · oursB · birdsA · flowersB
- 4 A-A- minuteA · warm · itA · harm
- 5 ABAB afraidA · nightB · obeyedA · quiteB
- 6 ABAB breakingA · eastB · wakingA · leastB
- 7 ABAB tippingA · blockB · slippingA · weathercockB
- 8 ABAB deadA · youB · saidA · youB
- 9 ABAB speakingA · speechB · seekingA · teachB
- 10 ABAB longerA · endureB · strongerA · pureB
- 11 ABAB brotherA · menB · otherA · againB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Quiet, quiet dead, | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| Have ye aught to say | 5 | ····· |
| From your hidden bed | 5 | ··/˘· |
| In the earthy clay? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Fathers, children, mothers, | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| Ye are very quiet; | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Can ye shout, my brothers? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| I would know you by it! | 6 | ······ |
| Have ye any words | 5 | ··/˘· |
| That are like to ours? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Have ye any birds? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Have ye any flowers? | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Could ye rise a minute | 6 | ····/˘ |
| When the sun is warm? | 5 | ····· |
| I would know you in it, | 6 | ······ |
| I would take no harm. | 5 | ····· |
| I am half afraid | 5 | ···˘/ |
| In the ghostly night; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| If ye all obeyed | 5 | ···˘/ |
| I should fear you quite. | 5 | ····· |
| But when day is breaking | 6 | ····/˘ |
| In the purple east | 5 | ··/˘· |
| I would meet you waking-- | 6 | ····/˘ |
| One of you at least-- | 5 | ····· |
| When the sun is tipping | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Every stony block, | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| And the sun is slipping | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Down the weathercock. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| Quiet, quiet dead, | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| I will not perplex you; | 6 | ···˘/· |
| What my tongue hath said | 5 | ····· |
| Haply it may vex you! | 6 | /˘···· |
| Yet I hear you speaking | 6 | ····/˘ |
| With a quiet speech, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| As if ye were seeking | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Better things to teach: | 5 | /˘··· |
| "Wait a little longer, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Suffer and endure | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
| Till your heart is stronger | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And your eyes are pure-- | 5 | ····· |
| A little longer, brother, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| With your fellow-men: | 5 | ··/˘· |
| We will meet each other | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Otherwhere again." | 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.