Rondel
Heart, thou must learn to do without--That is the riches of the poor,Their liberty is to endure;Wrap thou thine old cloak thee about,And carol loud and carol stout;Let thy rags fly, nor wish them fewer;Thou too must learn to do without,Must earn the riches of the poor!
Why should'st thou only wear no clout?Thou only walk in love-robes pure?Why should thy step alone be sure?Thou only free of fortune's flout?Nay, nay! but learn to go without,And so be humbly, richly poor.
Words in this poem
- carol v. t.
- To praise or celebrate in song.
- clout n.
- A cloth; a piece of cloth or leather; a patch; a rag. [AS. clut a little cloth, piece of metal; cf. Sw. klut, Icel. klutr a kerchief, or W. clwt a clout, Gael. clud.]
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
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.html, id L22368.
Form and metre
Rondel is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBAA-AB withoutA · poorB · endureB · aboutA · stoutA · fewer · withoutA · poorB
- 2 ABBAAB cloutA · pureB · sureB · floutA · withoutA · poorB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heart, thou must learn to do without-- | 8 | ········ |
| That is the riches of the poor, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Their liberty is to endure; | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| Wrap thou thine old cloak thee about, | 8 | ········ |
| And carol loud and carol stout; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Let thy rags fly, nor wish them fewer; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Thou too must learn to do without, | 8 | ········ |
| Must earn the riches of the poor! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Why should'st thou only wear no clout? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thou only walk in love-robes pure? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Why should thy step alone be sure? | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Thou only free of fortune's flout? | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Nay, nay! but learn to go without, | 8 | ········ |
| And so be humbly, richly poor. | 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.