Sabbath Bells
Oh holy Sabbath bells,Ye have a pleasant voice!Through all the land your music swells,And man with one commandment tellsTo rest and to rejoice.
As birds rejoice to fleeFrom dark and stormy skiesTo brighter lands beyond the seaWhere skies are calm, and wings are freeTo wander and to rise;
As thirsty travellers sing,Through desert paths that pass,To hear the welcome waters spring,And see, beyond the spray they flingTall trees and waving grass;
So we rejoice to knowYour melody begun;For when our paths are parched belowYe tell us where green pastures glowAnd living waters run.
Words in this poem
- commandment n.
- An order or injunction given by authority; a command; a charge; a precept; a mandate. [OF. commandement, F. commandement.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sabbath Bells 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, Sabbath Bells, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/sabbath-bells.html, id L22429.
Form and metre
Sabbath Bells is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABAAB bellsA · voiceB · swellsA · tellsA · rejoiceB
- 2 ABAAB fleeA · skiesB · seaA · freeA · riseB
- 3 ABAAB singA · passB · springA · flingA · grassB
- 4 ABAAB knowA · begunB · belowA · glowA · runB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh holy Sabbath bells, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Ye have a pleasant voice! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Through all the land your music swells, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And man with one commandment tells | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| To rest and to rejoice. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| As birds rejoice to flee | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| From dark and stormy skies | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To brighter lands beyond the sea | 7 | ·/····· |
| Where skies are calm, and wings are free | 8 | ········ |
| To wander and to rise; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As thirsty travellers sing, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Through desert paths that pass, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To hear the welcome waters spring, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And see, beyond the spray they fling | 8 | ········ |
| Tall trees and waving grass; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| So we rejoice to know | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Your melody begun; | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| For when our paths are parched below | 8 | ··/····· |
| Ye tell us where green pastures glow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And living waters run. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
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.