Sudden Calm
There is a bellowing in me, as of mightUnfleshed and visionless, mangling the airWith horrible convulse, as if it bareThe cruel weight of worlds, but could not fightWith the thick-dropping clods, and could but biteA vapour-cloud! Oh, I will climb the stairOf the great universe, and lay me thereEven at the threshold of his gate, despiteThe tempest, and the weakness, and the rushOf this quick crowding on me!--Oh, I dream!Now I am sailing swiftly, as we seemTo do in sleep! and I can hear the gushOf a melodious wave that carries meOn, on for ever to eternity!
Words in this poem
- visionless a.
- Destitute of vision; sightless.
- convulse v. t.
- To contract violently and irregulary, as the muscular parts of an animal body; to shake with irregular spasms, as in excessive laughter, or in agony from grief or pain. [L. convulsus, p.p. of convellere to tear up, to shake; con- + vellere to pluck, pull.]
- vapour n.
- Any substance in the gaseous, or aëriform, state, the condition of which is ordinarily that of a liquid or solid. [OE. vapour, OF. vapour, vapor, vapeur, F. vapeur, L. vapor; probably for cvapor, and akin to Gr. kvepti to breathe, smell, Russ. kopote fine soot. Cf. Vapid.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sudden Calm 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, Sudden Calm, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/sudden-calm.html, id L22470.
Form and metre
Sudden Calm is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDC-- mightA · airB · bareB · fightA · biteA · stairB · thereB · despiteA · rushC · dreamD · seemD · gushC · me · eternity
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a bellowing in me, as of might | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Unfleshed and visionless, mangling the air | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| With horrible convulse, as if it bare | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/···· |
| The cruel weight of worlds, but could not fight | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| With the thick-dropping clods, and could but bite | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A vapour-cloud! Oh, I will climb the stair | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of the great universe, and lay me there | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Even at the threshold of his gate, despite | 10 | /··/····˘/ |
| The tempest, and the weakness, and the rush | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of this quick crowding on me!--Oh, I dream! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Now I am sailing swiftly, as we seem | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To do in sleep! and I can hear the gush | 10 | ·········· |
| Of a melodious wave that carries me | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| On, on for ever to eternity! | 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.