Riddles I
I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;My one foot stands well, but never goes;I've a good many arms, if you count them all,But hundreds of fingers, large and small;From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows;I breathe with my hair, and I drink with my toes;I grow bigger and bigger about the waistAlthough I am always very tight laced;None e'er saw me eat--I've no mouth to bite!Yet I eat all day, and digest all night.In the summer, with song I shake and quiver,But in winter I fast and groan and shiver.
Words in this poem
- bigger a.
- , compar. of Big.
- laced a.
- Fastened with a lace or laces; decorated with narrow strips or braid. See Lace, v. t.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Riddles I 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, Riddles I, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/riddles-i.html, id L22338.
Form and metre
Riddles I is 12 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
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 AABBAACCDDEE toesA · goesA · allB · smallB · growsA · toesA · waistC · lacedC · biteD · nightD · quiverE · shiverE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I have only one foot, but thousands of toes; | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| My one foot stands well, but never goes; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I've a good many arms, if you count them all, | 10 | ···/······ |
| But hundreds of fingers, large and small; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows; | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘· |
| I breathe with my hair, and I drink with my toes; | 11 | ··········· |
| I grow bigger and bigger about the waist | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| Although I am always very tight laced; | 10 | ····/·/˘·· |
| None e'er saw me eat--I've no mouth to bite! | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet I eat all day, and digest all night. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| In the summer, with song I shake and quiver, | 11 | ··/˘·····/˘ |
| But in winter I fast and groan and shiver. | 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.