The Carpenter
Lord, at Joseph's humble benchThy hands did handle saw and plane;Thy hammer nails did drive and clench,Avoiding knot and humouring grain.
That thou didst seem, thou wast indeed,In sport thy tools thou didst not use;Nor, helping hind's or fisher's need,The labourer's hire, too nice, refuse.
Lord, might I be but as a saw,A plane, a chisel, in thy hand!--No, Lord! I take it back in awe,Such prayer for me is far too grand.
I pray, O Master, let me lie,As on thy bench the favoured wood;Thy saw, thy plane, thy chisel ply,And work me into something good.
No, no; ambition, holy-high,Urges for more than both to pray:Come in, O gracious Force, I cry--O workman, share my shed of clay.
Then I, at bench, or desk, or oar,With knife or needle, voice or pen,As thou in Nazareth of yore,Shall do the Father's will again.
Thus fashioning a workman rare,O Master, this shall be thy fee:Home to thy father thou shall bearAnother child made like to thee.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- favoured a.
- Countenanced; aided; regarded with kidness; as, a favored friend.
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Carpenter 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 Carpenter, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-carpenter.html, id L22387.
Form and metre
The Carpenter is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABAB benchA · planeB · clenchA · grainB
- 2 ABAB indeedA · useB · needA · refuseB
- 3 ABAB sawA · handB · aweA · grandB
- 4 ABAB lieA · woodB · plyA · goodB
- 5 ABAB highA · prayB · cryA · clayB
- 6 ABAB oarA · penB · yoreA · againB
- 7 ABAB rareA · feeB · bearA · theeB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lord, at Joseph's humble bench | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Thy hands did handle saw and plane; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy hammer nails did drive and clench, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Avoiding knot and humouring grain. | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| That thou didst seem, thou wast indeed, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| In sport thy tools thou didst not use; | 8 | ········ |
| Nor, helping hind's or fisher's need, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The labourer's hire, too nice, refuse. | 9 | ····/··˘/ |
| Lord, might I be but as a saw, | 8 | ········ |
| A plane, a chisel, in thy hand!-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No, Lord! I take it back in awe, | 8 | ········ |
| Such prayer for me is far too grand. | 8 | ········ |
| I pray, O Master, let me lie, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As on thy bench the favoured wood; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy saw, thy plane, thy chisel ply, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And work me into something good. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| No, no; ambition, holy-high, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Urges for more than both to pray: | 8 | /˘······ |
| Come in, O gracious Force, I cry-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O workman, share my shed of clay. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Then I, at bench, or desk, or oar, | 8 | ········ |
| With knife or needle, voice or pen, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As thou in Nazareth of yore, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Shall do the Father's will again. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Thus fashioning a workman rare, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| O Master, this shall be thy fee: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Home to thy father thou shall bear | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Another child made like to thee. | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
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.