Steadfast
Here stands a giant stone from whose far topComes down the sounding water: let me gazeTill every sense of man and human waysIs wrecked and quenched for ever, and I dropInto the whirl of time, and without stopPass downward thus! Again my eyes I raiseTo thee, dark rock; and through the mist and hazeMy strength returns when I behold thy propGleam stern and steady through the wavering wrack.Surely thy strength is human, and like meThou bearest loads of thunder on thy back!And, lo, a smile upon thy visage black--A breezy tuft of grass which I can seeWaving serenely from a sunlit crack!
Words in this poem
- wrack n.
- Wreck; ruin; destruction. [OE. wrak wreck. See Wreck.]
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
- serenely adv.
- In a serene manner; clearly.
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Steadfast 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, Steadfast, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/steadfast.html, id L22461.
Form and metre
Steadfast is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCCDC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See 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 ABBAABBACDCCDC topA · gazeB · waysB · dropA · stopA · raiseB · hazeB · propA · wrackC · meD · backC · blackC · seeD · crackC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here stands a giant stone from whose far top | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Comes down the sounding water: let me gaze | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Till every sense of man and human ways | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Is wrecked and quenched for ever, and I drop | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Into the whirl of time, and without stop | 10 | ·········· |
| Pass downward thus! Again my eyes I raise | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| To thee, dark rock; and through the mist and haze | 10 | ·········· |
| My strength returns when I behold thy prop | 10 | ··˘/··˘/·· |
| Gleam stern and steady through the wavering wrack. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Surely thy strength is human, and like me | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Thou bearest loads of thunder on thy back! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And, lo, a smile upon thy visage black-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A breezy tuft of grass which I can see | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Waving serenely from a sunlit crack! | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/·· |
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.