The Human
Within each living man there doth reside,In some unrifled chamber of the heart,A hidden treasure: wayward as thou artI love thee, man, and bind thee to my side!By that sweet act I purify my prideAnd hasten onward--willing even to partWith pleasant graces: though thy hue is swart,I bear thee company, thou art my guide!Even in thy sinning wise beyond thy kenTo thee a subtle debt my soul is owing!I take an impulse from the worst of menThat lends a wing unto my onward going;Then let me pay them gladly back againWith prayer and love from Faith and Duty flowing!
Words in this poem
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Human 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 Human, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-human.html, id L22473.
Form and metre
The Human is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 ABBAAB-ACDCDCD resideA · heartB · artB · sideA · prideA · partB · swart · guideA · kenC · owingD · menC · goingD · againC · flowingD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Within each living man there doth reside, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| In some unrifled chamber of the heart, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| A hidden treasure: wayward as thou art | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| I love thee, man, and bind thee to my side! | 10 | ·········· |
| By that sweet act I purify my pride | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And hasten onward--willing even to part | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/·· |
| With pleasant graces: though thy hue is swart, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| I bear thee company, thou art my guide! | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Even in thy sinning wise beyond thy ken | 10 | /··/˘····· |
| To thee a subtle debt my soul is owing! | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| I take an impulse from the worst of men | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That lends a wing unto my onward going; | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Then let me pay them gladly back again | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| With prayer and love from Faith and Duty flowing! | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
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.