The Beloved Disciple II
A Boanerges too! Upon my heartIt lay a heavy hour: features like thineShould glow with other message than the shineOf the earth-burrowing levin, and the startThat cleaveth horrid gulfs! Awful and swartA moment stoodest thou, but less divine--Brawny and clad in ruin--till with mineThy heart made answering signals, and apartBeamed forth thy two rapt eyeballs doubly clearAnd twice as strong because thou didst thy duty,And, though affianced to immortal Beauty,Hiddest not weakly underneath her veilThe pest of Sin and Death which maketh pale:Henceforward be thy spirit doubly dear!
Words in this poem
- boanerges
- Any declamatory and vociferous preacher or orator. [Gr. , fr. Heb. bn sons of thunder. -- an appellation given by Christ to two of his disciples (James and John). See Mark iii. 17.]
- levin n.
- Lightning. Spenser. Levin brand, a thunderbolt. [Etymol. uncertain. Cf. Leven.]
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
- brawny a.
- Having large, strong muscles; muscular; fleshy; strong.
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- beamed a.
- Furnished with beams, as the head of a stag.
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- pest n.
- A fatal epidemic disease; a pestilence; specif., the plague. [L. pestis: cf. F. peste.]
- henceforward adv.
- From this time forward; henceforth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Beloved Disciple II 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, The Beloved Disciple II, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-beloved-disciple-ii.html, id L22453.
Form and metre
The Beloved Disciple II 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 87%).
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 ABBA-BBACDDEEC heartA · thineB · shineB · startA · swart · divineB · mineB · apartA · clearC · dutyD · beautyD · veilE · paleE · dearC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A Boanerges too! Upon my heart | 9 | ········· |
| It lay a heavy hour: features like thine | 10 | ···/˘//˘·· |
| Should glow with other message than the shine | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Of the earth-burrowing levin, and the start | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| That cleaveth horrid gulfs! Awful and swart | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| A moment stoodest thou, but less divine-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Brawny and clad in ruin--till with mine | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Thy heart made answering signals, and apart | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Beamed forth thy two rapt eyeballs doubly clear | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| And twice as strong because thou didst thy duty, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And, though affianced to immortal Beauty, | 10 | ·····˘/˘/˘ |
| Hiddest not weakly underneath her veil | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/·· |
| The pest of Sin and Death which maketh pale: | 10 | ·········· |
| Henceforward be thy spirit doubly dear! | 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.