The Sparrow
O Lord, I cannot but believeThe birds do sing thy praises then, when they sing to one another,And they are lying seed-sown land when the winter makes them grieve,Their little bosoms breeding songs for the summer to unsmother!
If thou hadst finished me, O Lord,Nor left out of me part of that great gift that goes to singing,I sure had known the meaning high of the songster's praising word,Had known upon what thoughts of thee his pearly talk he was stringing!
I should have read the wisdom hidIn the storm-inspired melody of thy thrush's bosom solemn:I should not then have understood what thy free spirit didTo make the lark-soprano mount like to a geyser-column!
I think I almost understandThy owl, his muffled swiftness, moon-round eyes, and intoned hooting;I think I could take up the part of a night-owl in the land,With yellow moon and starry things day-dreamers all confuting.
But 'mong thy creatures that do singPerhaps of all I likest am to the housetop-haunting sparrow,That flies brief, sudden flights upon a dumpy, fluttering wing,And chirps thy praises from a throat that's very short and narrow.
But if thy sparrow praise thee wellBy singing well thy song, nor letting noisy traffic quell it,It may be that, in some remote and leafy heavenly dell,He may with a trumpet-throat awake, and a trumpet-song to swell it!
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- dumpy a.
- From Dump a short ill-shapen piece.
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
- 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 Sparrow 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 Sparrow, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-sparrow.html, id L22506.
Form and metre
The Sparrow is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in iambic octameter.
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 believeA · anotherB · grieveA · unsmotherB
- 2 -A-A lord · singingA · word · stringingA
- 3 ABAB hidA · solemnB · didA · columnB
- 4 ABAB understandA · hootingB · landA · confutingB
- 5 ABAB singA · sparrowB · wingA · narrowB
- 6 ABAB wellA · itB · dellA · itB
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 octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O Lord, I cannot but believe | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| The birds do sing thy praises then, when they sing to one another, | 16 | ·····/˘······˘/˘ |
| And they are lying seed-sown land when the winter makes them grieve, | 15 | ···/˘·····/˘··· |
| Their little bosoms breeding songs for the summer to unsmother! | 16 | ·/˘/˘/˘···/˘···· |
| If thou hadst finished me, O Lord, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor left out of me part of that great gift that goes to singing, | 15 | ·············/˘ |
| I sure had known the meaning high of the songster's praising word, | 15 | ·····/˘·····/˘· |
| Had known upon what thoughts of thee his pearly talk he was stringing! | 16 | ·········/˘···/˘ |
| I should have read the wisdom hid | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In the storm-inspired melody of thy thrush's bosom solemn: | 16 | ···˘//˘˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| I should not then have understood what thy free spirit did | 14 | ······˘/···/˘· |
| To make the lark-soprano mount like to a geyser-column! | 15 | ····˘/˘····/˘/˘ |
| I think I almost understand | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| Thy owl, his muffled swiftness, moon-round eyes, and intoned hooting; | 15 | ···/˘/˘····˘//˘ |
| I think I could take up the part of a night-owl in the land, | 15 | ··············· |
| With yellow moon and starry things day-dreamers all confuting. | 15 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘···· |
| But 'mong thy creatures that do sing | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Perhaps of all I likest am to the housetop-haunting sparrow, | 17 | ˘/···········/˘/˘ |
| That flies brief, sudden flights upon a dumpy, fluttering wing, | 15 | ···/˘····/˘/˘˘· |
| And chirps thy praises from a throat that's very short and narrow. | 15 | ···/˘····/˘··/˘ |
| But if thy sparrow praise thee well | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| By singing well thy song, nor letting noisy traffic quell it, | 15 | ·/˘····/˘/˘/˘·· |
| It may be that, in some remote and leafy heavenly dell, | 15 | ······˘/·/˘/˘˘· |
| He may with a trumpet-throat awake, and a trumpet-song to swell it! | 17 | ····/˘·˘/··/˘···· |
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.