The Old Garden III
I stood in the gathering twilight,In a gently blowing wind;Then the house looked half uneasy,Like one that was left behind.
The roses had lost their redness,And cold the grass had grown;At roost were the pigeons and peacock,The sun-dial seemed a head-stone.
The world by the gathering twilightIn a gauzy dusk was clad;Something went into my spiritAnd made me a little sad.
Grew and gathered the twilight,It filled my heart and brain;The sadness grew more than sadness,It turned to a gentle pain.
Browned and brooded the twilight,Pervaded, absorbed the calm,Till it seemed for some human sorrowsThere could not be any balm.
Words in this poem
- gauzy a.
- Pertaining to, or resembling, gauze; thin and slight as gauze.
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Garden III 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 III, 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-iii.html, id L22390.
Form and metre
The Old Garden III is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 twilight · windA · uneasy · behindA
- 2 -A-A redness · grownA · peacock · stoneA
- 3 ABAB twilightA · cladB · spiritA · sadB
- 4 -A-A twilight · brainA · sadness · painA
- 5 -A-A twilight · calmA · sorrows · balmA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I stood in the gathering twilight, | 8 | ····/˘/· |
| In a gently blowing wind; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Then the house looked half uneasy, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Like one that was left behind. | 7 | ······· |
| The roses had lost their redness, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| And cold the grass had grown; | 6 | ······ |
| At roost were the pigeons and peacock, | 9 | ····/˘·/· |
| The sun-dial seemed a head-stone. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| The world by the gathering twilight | 8 | ····/˘/· |
| In a gauzy dusk was clad; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Something went into my spirit | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| And made me a little sad. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Grew and gathered the twilight, | 7 | ··/˘·/· |
| It filled my heart and brain; | 7 | ··˘···· |
| The sadness grew more than sadness, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| It turned to a gentle pain. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Browned and brooded the twilight, | 7 | ··/˘·/· |
| Pervaded, absorbed the calm, | 7 | ˘/˘˘/·· |
| Till it seemed for some human sorrows | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| There could not be any balm. | 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.