The Dwellers Therein
Down a warm alley, early in the year,Among the woods, with all the sunshine inAnd all the winds outside it, I beginTo think that something gracious will appear,If anything of grace inhabit here,Or there be friendship in the woods to win.Might one but find companions more akinTo trees and grass and happy daylight clear,And in this wood spend one long hour at home!The fairies do not love so bright a place,And angels to the forest never come,But I have dreamed of some harmonious race,The kindred of the shapes that haunt the shoreOf Music's flow and flow for evermore.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dwellers Therein 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 Dwellers Therein, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-dwellers-therein.html, id L22404.
Form and metre
The Dwellers Therein is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 yearA · inB · beginB · appearA · hereA · winB · akinB · clearA · homeC · placeD · comeC · raceD · shoreE · evermoreE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Down a warm alley, early in the year, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Among the woods, with all the sunshine in | 10 | ·······/·· |
| And all the winds outside it, I begin | 10 | ····//··˘/ |
| To think that something gracious will appear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| If anything of grace inhabit here, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Or there be friendship in the woods to win. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Might one but find companions more akin | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| To trees and grass and happy daylight clear, | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| And in this wood spend one long hour at home! | 10 | ·······/·· |
| The fairies do not love so bright a place, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And angels to the forest never come, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| But I have dreamed of some harmonious race, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The kindred of the shapes that haunt the shore | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of Music's flow and flow for evermore. | 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.