The True
I envy the tree-tops that shake so highIn winds that fill them full of heavenly airs;I envy every little cloud that sharesWith unseen angels evening in the sky;I envy most the youngest stars that lieSky-nested, and the loving heaven that bears,And night that makes strong worlds of them unawares;And all God's other beautiful and nigh!
Nay, nay, I envy not! And these are dreams,Fancies and images of real heaven!My longings, all my longing prayers are givenFor that which is, and not for that which seems.Draw me, O Lord, to thy true heaven above,The Heaven of thy Thought, thy Rest, thy Love.
Words in this poem
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The True 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 True, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-true.html, id L22403.
Form and metre
The True is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See 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 ABBAABBA highA · airsB · sharesB · skyA · lieA · bearsB · unawaresB · nighA
- 2 A--ABB dreamsA · heaven · given · seemsA · aboveB · loveB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I envy the tree-tops that shake so high | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| In winds that fill them full of heavenly airs; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I envy every little cloud that shares | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| With unseen angels evening in the sky; | 10 | ·˘//˘/˘··· |
| I envy most the youngest stars that lie | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Sky-nested, and the loving heaven that bears, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| And night that makes strong worlds of them unawares; | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| And all God's other beautiful and nigh! | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Nay, nay, I envy not! And these are dreams, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Fancies and images of real heaven! | 10 | /˘·/˘˘··/˘ |
| My longings, all my longing prayers are given | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| For that which is, and not for that which seems. | 10 | ·········· |
| Draw me, O Lord, to thy true heaven above, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| The Heaven of thy Thought, thy Rest, thy Love. | 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.