The Healer
They come to thee, the halt, the maimed, the blind,The devil-torn, the sick, the sore;Thy heart their well of life they find,Thine ear their open door.
Ah, who can tell the joy in Palestine--What smiles and tears of rescued throngs!Their lees of life were turned to wine,Their prayers to shouts and songs!
The story dear our wise men fable call,Give paltry facts the mighty range;To me it seems just what should fall,And nothing very strange.
But were I deaf and lame and blind and sore,I scarce would care for cure to ask;Another prayer should haunt thy door--Set thee a harder task.
If thou art Christ, see here this heart of mine,Torn, empty, moaning, and unblest!Had ever heart more need of thine,If thine indeed hath rest?
Thy word, thy hand right soon did scare the baneThat in their bodies death did breed;If thou canst cure my deeper painThen art thou lord indeed.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- unblest a.
- Not blest; excluded from benediction; hence, accursed; wretched. [Pref. un- not + blessed, blest.]
- scare v. t.
- To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm. [OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar, prevent, skirrask to shun , shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre, adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer ]
- bane v. t.
- To be the bane of; to ruin. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Healer 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 Healer, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-healer.html, id L22421.
Form and metre
The Healer is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 blindA · soreB · findA · doorB
- 2 ABAB palestineA · throngsB · wineA · songsB
- 3 ABAB callA · rangeB · fallA · strangeB
- 4 ABAB soreA · askB · doorA · taskB
- 5 ABAB mineA · unblestB · thineA · restB
- 6 ABAB baneA · breedB · painA · indeedB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They come to thee, the halt, the maimed, the blind, | 10 | ·········· |
| The devil-torn, the sick, the sore; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thy heart their well of life they find, | 8 | ········ |
| Thine ear their open door. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ah, who can tell the joy in Palestine-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| What smiles and tears of rescued throngs! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Their lees of life were turned to wine, | 8 | ········ |
| Their prayers to shouts and songs! | 6 | ······ |
| The story dear our wise men fable call, | 10 | ·/˘·/··/˘· |
| Give paltry facts the mighty range; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To me it seems just what should fall, | 8 | ········ |
| And nothing very strange. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| But were I deaf and lame and blind and sore, | 10 | ·········· |
| I scarce would care for cure to ask; | 8 | ········ |
| Another prayer should haunt thy door-- | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Set thee a harder task. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If thou art Christ, see here this heart of mine, | 10 | ·········· |
| Torn, empty, moaning, and unblest! | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Had ever heart more need of thine, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| If thine indeed hath rest? | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Thy word, thy hand right soon did scare the bane | 10 | ·········· |
| That in their bodies death did breed; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| If thou canst cure my deeper pain | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Then art thou lord indeed. | 6 | ····˘/ |
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.