The Old Garden VII
I will not look on her nearer,My heart would be torn in twain;From my eyes the garden would vanishIn the falling of their rain.
I will not look on a sorrowThat darkens into despair,On the surge of a heart that cannotYet cannot cease to bear.
My soul to hers would be calling:She would hear no word it said!If I cried aloud in the stillnessShe would never turn her head!
She is dreaming the sky above her,She is dreaming the earth below:--This night she lost her loverA hundred years ago.
Words in this poem
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Garden VII 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 VII, 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-vii.html, id L22394.
Form and metre
The Old Garden VII is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
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 nearer · twainA · vanish · rainA
- 2 -A-A sorrow · despairA · cannot · bearA
- 3 -A-A calling · saidA · stillness · headA
- 4 -A-A her · belowA · lover · agoA
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 will not look on her nearer, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| My heart would be torn in twain; | 7 | ······· |
| From my eyes the garden would vanish | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| In the falling of their rain. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I will not look on a sorrow | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That darkens into despair, | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| On the surge of a heart that cannot | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Yet cannot cease to bear. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My soul to hers would be calling: | 8 | ······/˘ |
| She would hear no word it said! | 7 | ······· |
| If I cried aloud in the stillness | 9 | ···˘/··/˘ |
| She would never turn her head! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| She is dreaming the sky above her, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| She is dreaming the earth below:-- | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| This night she lost her lover | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A hundred years ago. | 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.