Sun and Moon
First came the red-eyed sun as I did wake;He smote me on the temples and I rose,Casting the night aside and all its woes;And I would spurn my idleness, and takeMy own wild journey even like him, and shakeThe pillars of all doubt with lusty blows,Even like himself when his rich glory goesRight through the stalwart fogs that part and break.But ere my soul was ready for the fight,His solemn setting mocked me in the west;And as I trembled in the lifting night,The white moon met me, and my heart confess'dA mellow wisdom in her silent youth,Which fed my hope with fear, and made my strength a truth.
Words in this poem
- spurn v. t.
- To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise,]
- stalwart a.
- Brave; bold; strong; redoubted; daring; vehement; violent. [OE. stalworth, AS. stælwyrth serviceable, probably originally, good at stealing, or worth stealing or taking, and afterwards extended to other causes of estimat]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sun and Moon 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, Sun and Moon, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/sun-and-moon.html, id L22478.
Form and metre
Sun and Moon is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABBAABBACDCDEE wakeA · roseB · woesB · takeA · shakeA · blowsB · goesB · breakA · fightC · westD · nightC · confess'dD · youthE · truthE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| First came the red-eyed sun as I did wake; | 10 | ·········· |
| He smote me on the temples and I rose, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Casting the night aside and all its woes; | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| And I would spurn my idleness, and take | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| My own wild journey even like him, and shake | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| The pillars of all doubt with lusty blows, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Even like himself when his rich glory goes | 10 | /·˘/···/˘· |
| Right through the stalwart fogs that part and break. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But ere my soul was ready for the fight, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| His solemn setting mocked me in the west; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And as I trembled in the lifting night, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The white moon met me, and my heart confess'd | 10 | ········˘/ |
| A mellow wisdom in her silent youth, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Which fed my hope with fear, and made my strength a truth. | 12 | ············ |
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.