Subsidy
If thou wouldst live the Truth in very deed,Thou hast thy joy, but thou hast more of pain.Others will live in peace, and thou be fainTo bargain with despair, and in thy needTo make thy meal upon the scantiest weed.These palaces, for thee they stand in vain;Thine is a ruinous hut, and oft the rainShall drench thee in the midnight; yea, the speedOf earth outstrip thee, pilgrim, while thy feetMove slowly up the heights. Yet will there comeThrough the time-rents about thy moving cell,Shot from the Truth's own bow, and flaming sweet,An arrow for despair, and oft the humOf far-off populous realms where spirits dwell.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- outstrip v. t.
- To go faster than; to outrun; to advance beyond; to leave behing.
- populous a.
- Abounding in people; full of inhabitants; containing many inhabitants in proportion to the extent of the country. [L. populosus, fr. populus people: cf. F. populeux.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Subsidy 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, Subsidy, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/subsidy.html, id L22449.
Form and metre
Subsidy is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDECDE deedA · painB · fainB · needA · weedA · vainB · rainB · speedA · feetC · comeD · cellE · sweetC · humD · dwellE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If thou wouldst live the Truth in very deed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thou hast thy joy, but thou hast more of pain. | 10 | ·········· |
| Others will live in peace, and thou be fain | 10 | /˘········ |
| To bargain with despair, and in thy need | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| To make thy meal upon the scantiest weed. | 10 | ·········· |
| These palaces, for thee they stand in vain; | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Thine is a ruinous hut, and oft the rain | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Shall drench thee in the midnight; yea, the speed | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Of earth outstrip thee, pilgrim, while thy feet | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Move slowly up the heights. Yet will there come | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Through the time-rents about thy moving cell, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Shot from the Truth's own bow, and flaming sweet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| An arrow for despair, and oft the hum | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Of far-off populous realms where spirits dwell. | 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.