Song
Why do the houses standWhen they that built them are gone;When remaineth even of oneThat lived there and loved and plannedNot a face, not an eye, not a hand,Only here and there a bone?Why do the houses standWhen they who built them are gone?
Oft in the moonlighted landWhen the day is overblown,With happy memorial moanSweet ghosts in a loving bandRoam through the houses that stand--For the builders are not gone.
About this text
Song 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, Song, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/song-3.html, id L22494.
Form and metre
Song is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 AB-AA-AB standA · goneB · one · plannedA · handA · bone · standA · goneB
- 2 ABBAA- landA · overblownB · moanB · bandA · standA · gone
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Why do the houses stand | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When they that built them are gone; | 7 | ······· |
| When remaineth even of one | 7 | ·˘/˘/·· |
| That lived there and loved and planned | 7 | ······· |
| Not a face, not an eye, not a hand, | 9 | ········· |
| Only here and there a bone? | 7 | /˘····· |
| Why do the houses stand | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When they who built them are gone? | 7 | ······· |
| Oft in the moonlighted land | 7 | ···/·˘· |
| When the day is overblown, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| With happy memorial moan | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Sweet ghosts in a loving band | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Roam through the houses that stand-- | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| For the builders are not gone. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.