Rondel
I do not know thy final will,It is too good for me to know:Thou willest that I mercy show,That I take heed and do no ill,That I the needy warm and fill,Nor stones at any sinner throw;But I know not thy final will--It is too good for me to know.
I know thy love unspeakable--For love's sake able to send woe!To find thine own thou lost didst go,And wouldst for men thy blood yet spill!--How should I know thy final will,Godwise too good for me to know!
Words in this poem
- sinner n.
- One who has sinned; especially, one who has sinned without repenting; hence, a persistent and incorrigible transgressor; one condemned by the law of God.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- spill n.
- A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [sq. root170. Cf. Spell a splinter.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rondel 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, Rondel, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/rondel-2.html, id L22505.
Form and metre
Rondel is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBAABAB willA · knowB · showB · illA · fillA · throwB · willA · knowB
- 2 ABBAAB unspeakableA · woeB · goB · spillA · willA · knowB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I do not know thy final will, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| It is too good for me to know: | 8 | ········ |
| Thou willest that I mercy show, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That I take heed and do no ill, | 8 | ········ |
| That I the needy warm and fill, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor stones at any sinner throw; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But I know not thy final will-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| It is too good for me to know. | 8 | ········ |
| I know thy love unspeakable-- | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| For love's sake able to send woe! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To find thine own thou lost didst go, | 8 | ········ |
| And wouldst for men thy blood yet spill!-- | 8 | ········ |
| How should I know thy final will, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Godwise too good for me to know! | 8 | ········ |
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.