The Man of Songs
"Thou wanderest in the land of dreams,O man of many songs!To thee what is, but looks and seems;No realm to thee belongs!"
"Seest thou those mountains, faint and far,O spirit caged and tame?""Blue clouds like distant hills they are,And like is not the same."
"Nay, nay; I know each mountain well,Each cliff, and peak, and dome!In that cloudland, in one high dell,Nesteth my little home."
Words in this poem
- caged a.
- Confined in, or as in, a cage; like a cage or prison.
- dell n.
- A small, retired valley; a ravine. [AS. del, akin to E. dale; cf. D. delle, del, low ground. See Dale.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Man of Songs 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 Man of Songs, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-man-of-songs.html, id L22251.
Form and metre
The Man of Songs is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 dreamsA · songsB · seemsA · belongsB
- 2 ABAB farA · tameB · areA · sameB
- 3 ABAB wellA · domeB · dellA · homeB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Thou wanderest in the land of dreams, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| O man of many songs! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To thee what is, but looks and seems; | 8 | ········ |
| No realm to thee belongs!" | 6 | ····˘/ |
| "Seest thou those mountains, faint and far, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O spirit caged and tame?" | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| "Blue clouds like distant hills they are, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And like is not the same." | 6 | ······ |
| "Nay, nay; I know each mountain well, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Each cliff, and peak, and dome! | 6 | ······ |
| In that cloudland, in one high dell, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Nesteth my little home." | 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.