The Lily of the Valley
There is not any weed but hath its shower,There is not any pool but hath its star;And black and muddy though the waters areWe may not miss the glory of a flower,And winter moons will give them magic powerTo spin in cylinders of diamond spar;And everything hath beauty near and far,And keepeth close and waiteth on its hour!And I, when I encounter on my roadA human soul that looketh black and grim,Shall I more ceremonious be than God?Shall I refuse to watch one hour with himWho once beside our deepest woe did budA patient watching flower about the brim?
Words in this poem
- 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 Lily of the Valley 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 Lily of the Valley, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-lily-of-the-valley.html, id L22454.
Form and metre
The Lily of the Valley is 14 lines in a single stanza. 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 ABBAABBA-C-C-C showerA · starB · areB · flowerA · powerA · sparB · farB · hourA · road · grimC · god · himC · bud · brimC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is not any weed but hath its shower, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| There is not any pool but hath its star; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And black and muddy though the waters are | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| We may not miss the glory of a flower, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| And winter moons will give them magic power | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| To spin in cylinders of diamond spar; | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| And everything hath beauty near and far, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And keepeth close and waiteth on its hour! | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And I, when I encounter on my road | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| A human soul that looketh black and grim, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Shall I more ceremonious be than God? | 10 | ·········· |
| Shall I refuse to watch one hour with him | 10 | ··˘/···/·· |
| Who once beside our deepest woe did bud | 10 | ··˘///˘··· |
| A patient watching flower about the brim? | 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.