The Unseen Model
Forth to his study the sculptor goesIn a mood of lofty mirth:"Now shall the tongues of my carping foesConfess what my art is worth!In my brain last night the vision arose,To-morrow shall see its birth!"
He stood like a god; with creating handHe struck the formless clay:"Psyche, arise," he said, "and stand;In beauty confront the day.I have sought nor found thee in any land;I call thee: arise; obey!"
The sun was low in the eastern skiesWhen spoke the confident youth;Sweet Psyche, all day, his hands and eyesWiled from the clay uncouth,Nor ceased when the shadows came up like spiesThat dog the steps of Truth.
He said, "I will do my will in spiteOf the rising dark; for, see,She grows to my hand! The mar-work nightShall hurry and hide and fleeFrom the glow of my lamp and the making mightThat passeth out of me!"
In the flickering lamplight the figure swayed,In the shadows did melt and swim:With tool and thumb he modelled and made,Nor knew that feature and limbHalf-obeying, half-disobeyed,And mocking eluded him.
At the dawning Psyche of his brainJoyous he wrought all night:The oil went low, and he trimmed in vain,The lamp would not burn bright;But he still wrought on: through the high roof-paneHe saw the first faint light!
The dark retreated; the morning spread;His creatures their shapes resume;The plaster stares dumb-white and dead;A faint blue liquid bloomLies on each marble bosom and head;To his Psyche clings the gloom.
Backward he stept to see the clay:His visage grew white and sear;No beauty ideal confronted the day,No Psyche from upper sphere,But a once loved shape that in darkness lay,Buried a lonesome year!
From maidenhood's wilderness fair and wildA girl to his charm had hied:He had blown out the lamp of the trusting child,And in the darkness she died;Now from the clay she sadly smiled,And the sculptor stood staring-eyed.
He had summoned Psyche--and Psyche creptFrom a half-forgotten tomb;She brought her sad smile, that still she kept,Her eyes she left in the gloom!High grace had found him, for now he wept,And love was his endless doom!
Night-long he pined, all day did rue;He haunted her form with sighs:As oft as his clay to a lady grewThe carvers, with dim surmise,Would whisper, "The same shape come to woo,With its blindly beseeching eyes!"
Words in this poem 17
- sculptor n.
- One who sculptures; one whose occupation is to carve statues, or works of sculpture. [L. sculptor, fr. sculpere, sculptum, to carve; cf. scalpere to cut, carve, scratch, and Gr. sculpteur.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- carping a.
- Fault-finding; censorious caviling. See Captious.
- formless a.
- Shapeless; without a determinate form; wanting regularity of shape.
- psyche n.
- A lovely maiden, daughter of a king and mistress of Eros, or Cupid. She is regarded as the personification of the soul.
- confront v. t.
- To stand facing or in front of; to face; esp. to face hostilely; to oppose with firmness.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- lamplight n.
- Light from a lamp.
- swayed a.
- Bent down, and hollow in the back; sway-backed; -- said of a horse.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- resume n.
- A summing up; a condensed statement; an abridgment or brief recapitulation. [F. See Resume.]
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
- lonesome a.
- Secluded from society; not frequented by human beings; solitary.
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Unseen Model 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 Unseen Model, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-unseen-model.html, id L22292.
Form and metre
The Unseen Model is 66 lines in 11 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABAB. 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 ABABAB goesA · mirthB · foesA · worthB · aroseA · birthB
- 2 ABABAB handA · clayB · standA · dayB · landA · obeyB
- 3 ABABAB skiesA · youthB · eyesA · uncouthB · spiesA · truthB
- 4 ABABAB spiteA · seeB · nightA · fleeB · mightA · meB
- 5 ABABAB swayedA · swimB · madeA · limbB · disobeyedA · himB
- 6 ABABAB brainA · nightB · vainA · brightB · paneA · lightB
- 7 ABABAB spreadA · resumeB · deadA · bloomB · headA · gloomB
- 8 ABABAB clayA · searB · dayA · sphereB · layA · yearB
- 9 ABABAB wildA · hiedB · childA · diedB · smiledA · eyedB
- 10 ABABAB creptA · tombB · keptA · gloomB · weptA · doomB
- 11 ABABAB rueA · sighsB · grewA · surmiseB · wooA · eyesB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Forth to his study the sculptor goes | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| In a mood of lofty mirth: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| "Now shall the tongues of my carping foes | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Confess what my art is worth! | 7 | ˘/····· |
| In my brain last night the vision arose, | 10 | ······/˘˘/ |
| To-morrow shall see its birth!" | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| He stood like a god; with creating hand | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| He struck the formless clay: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| "Psyche, arise," he said, "and stand; | 8 | /˘˘/···· |
| In beauty confront the day. | 7 | ·/˘˘/·· |
| I have sought nor found thee in any land; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I call thee: arise; obey!" | 7 | ···˘/˘/ |
| The sun was low in the eastern skies | 9 | ······/˘· |
| When spoke the confident youth; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Sweet Psyche, all day, his hands and eyes | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Wiled from the clay uncouth, | 6 | ····// |
| Nor ceased when the shadows came up like spies | 10 | ····/····· |
| That dog the steps of Truth. | 6 | ······ |
| He said, "I will do my will in spite | 9 | ········· |
| Of the rising dark; for, see, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| She grows to my hand! The mar-work night | 9 | ········· |
| Shall hurry and hide and flee | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| From the glow of my lamp and the making might | 11 | ········/˘· |
| That passeth out of me!" | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In the flickering lamplight the figure swayed, | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| In the shadows did melt and swim: | 8 | ··/····· |
| With tool and thumb he modelled and made, | 10 | ·····˘/˘·· |
| Nor knew that feature and limb | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Half-obeying, half-disobeyed, | 9 | ·˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| And mocking eluded him. | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| At the dawning Psyche of his brain | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Joyous he wrought all night: | 6 | /˘···· |
| The oil went low, and he trimmed in vain, | 10 | ·······˘·· |
| The lamp would not burn bright; | 6 | ······ |
| But he still wrought on: through the high roof-pane | 10 | ·········· |
| He saw the first faint light! | 6 | ······ |
| The dark retreated; the morning spread; | 9 | ··˘/˘·/˘· |
| His creatures their shapes resume; | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| The plaster stares dumb-white and dead; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A faint blue liquid bloom | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Lies on each marble bosom and head; | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| To his Psyche clings the gloom. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Backward he stept to see the clay: | 8 | /˘······ |
| His visage grew white and sear; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| No beauty ideal confronted the day, | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘·· |
| No Psyche from upper sphere, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| But a once loved shape that in darkness lay, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Buried a lonesome year! | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| From maidenhood's wilderness fair and wild | 10 | ····/˘˘··· |
| A girl to his charm had hied: | 7 | ······· |
| He had blown out the lamp of the trusting child, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And in the darkness she died; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Now from the clay she sadly smiled, | 9 | ·····/˘·˘ |
| And the sculptor stood staring-eyed. | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| He had summoned Psyche--and Psyche crept | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| From a half-forgotten tomb; | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| She brought her sad smile, that still she kept, | 9 | ········· |
| Her eyes she left in the gloom! | 7 | ······· |
| High grace had found him, for now he wept, | 9 | ········· |
| And love was his endless doom! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Night-long he pined, all day did rue; | 9 | ····˘···· |
| He haunted her form with sighs: | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| As oft as his clay to a lady grew | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The carvers, with dim surmise, | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| Would whisper, "The same shape come to woo, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| With its blindly beseeching eyes!" | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
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.