The Old Garden I
I stood in an ancient gardenWith high red walls around;Over them grey and green lichensIn shadowy arabesque wound.
The topmost climbing blossomsOn fields kine-haunted looked out;But within were shelter and shadow,With daintiest odours about.
There were alleys and lurking arbours,Deep glooms into which to dive.The lawns were as soft as fleeces,Of daisies I counted but five.
The sun-dial was so agedIt had gathered a thoughtful grace;'Twas the round-about of the shadowThat so had furrowed its face.
The flowers were all of the oldestThat ever in garden sprung;Red, and blood-red, and dark purpleThe rose-lamps flaming hung.
Along the borders fringedWith broad thick edges of boxStood foxgloves and gorgeous poppiesAnd great-eyed hollyhocks.
There were junipers trimmed into castles,And ash-trees bowed into tents;For the garden, though ancient and pensive,Still wore quaint ornaments.
It was all so stately fantasticIts old wind hardly would stir;Young Spring, when she merrily entered,Scarce felt it a place for her.
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Garden I 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 Old Garden I, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-old-garden-i.html, id L22388.
Form and metre
The Old Garden I is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
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 -A-A garden · aroundA · lichens · woundA
- 2 -A-A blossoms · outA · shadow · aboutA
- 3 -A-A arbours · diveA · fleeces · fiveA
- 4 -A-A aged · graceA · shadow · faceA
- 5 -A-A oldest · sprungA · purple · hungA
- 6 -A-A fringed · boxA · poppies · hollyhocksA
- 7 -A-A castles · tentsA · pensive · ornamentsA
- 8 -A-A fantastic · stirA · entered · herA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I stood in an ancient garden | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| With high red walls around; | 6 | ······ |
| Over them grey and green lichens | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In shadowy arabesque wound. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| The topmost climbing blossoms | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| On fields kine-haunted looked out; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But within were shelter and shadow, | 9 | ····/˘·/· |
| With daintiest odours about. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| There were alleys and lurking arbours, | 9 | ··/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Deep glooms into which to dive. | 7 | ······· |
| The lawns were as soft as fleeces, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Of daisies I counted but five. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| The sun-dial was so aged | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| It had gathered a thoughtful grace; | 9 | ··/˘˘·/˘· |
| 'Twas the round-about of the shadow | 9 | ·······/· |
| That so had furrowed its face. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| The flowers were all of the oldest | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| That ever in garden sprung; | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Red, and blood-red, and dark purple | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The rose-lamps flaming hung. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Along the borders fringed | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| With broad thick edges of box | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Stood foxgloves and gorgeous poppies | 8 | ·/··/˘/˘ |
| And great-eyed hollyhocks. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| There were junipers trimmed into castles, | 10 | ··/˘˘···/˘ |
| And ash-trees bowed into tents; | 7 | ······· |
| For the garden, though ancient and pensive, | 10 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Still wore quaint ornaments. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| It was all so stately fantastic | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Its old wind hardly would stir; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Young Spring, when she merrily entered, | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Scarce felt it a place for her. | 7 | ······· |
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.