The Moon
She comes! again she comes, the bright-eyed moon!Under a ragged cloud I found her out,Clasping her own dark orb like hope in doubt!That ragged cloud hath waited her since noon,And he hath found and he will hide her soon!Come, all ye little winds that sit without,And blow the shining leaves her edge about,And hold her fast--ye have a pleasant tune!She will forget us in her walks at nightAmong the other worlds that are so fair!She will forget to look on our despair!She will forget to be so young and bright!Nay, gentle moon, thou hast the keys of light--I saw them hanging by thy girdle there!
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Moon 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 Moon, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-moon.html, id L22482.
Form and metre
The Moon is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDCCD moonA · outB · doubtB · noonA · soonA · withoutB · aboutB · tuneA · nightC · fairD · despairD · brightC · lightC · thereD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She comes! again she comes, the bright-eyed moon! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Under a ragged cloud I found her out, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Clasping her own dark orb like hope in doubt! | 10 | /˘········ |
| That ragged cloud hath waited her since noon, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And he hath found and he will hide her soon! | 10 | ·········· |
| Come, all ye little winds that sit without, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And blow the shining leaves her edge about, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And hold her fast--ye have a pleasant tune! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| She will forget us in her walks at night | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Among the other worlds that are so fair! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| She will forget to look on our despair! | 10 | ··˘/···/˘/ |
| She will forget to be so young and bright! | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Nay, gentle moon, thou hast the keys of light-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I saw them hanging by thy girdle there! | 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.