The Watcher
From out a windy cleft there comes a gazeOf eyes unearthly, which go to and froUpon the people's tumult, for belowThe nations smite each other: no amazeTroubles their liquid rolling, or affraysTheir deep-set contemplation; steadily glowThose ever holier eyeballs, for they growLiker unto the eyes of one that prays.And if those clasped hands tremble, comes a powerAs of the might of worlds, and they are holdenBlessing above us in the sunrise golden;And they will be uplifted till that hourOf terrible rolling which shall rise and shakeThis conscious nightmare from us, and we wake.
Words in this poem
- unearthly a.
- Not terrestrial; supernatural; preternatural; hence, weird; appalling; terrific; as, an unearthly sight or sound.
- amaze v. t.
- To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze. [Pref. a- + maze.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Watcher 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 Watcher, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-watcher.html, id L22451.
Form and metre
The Watcher is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDDCEE gazeA · froB · belowB · amazeA · affraysA · glowB · growB · praysA · powerC · holdenD · goldenD · hourC · shakeE · wakeE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From out a windy cleft there comes a gaze | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of eyes unearthly, which go to and fro | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Upon the people's tumult, for below | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The nations smite each other: no amaze | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Troubles their liquid rolling, or affrays | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Their deep-set contemplation; steadily glow | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Those ever holier eyeballs, for they grow | 10 | ·//˘˘/···· |
| Liker unto the eyes of one that prays. | 10 | ·········· |
| And if those clasped hands tremble, comes a power | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| As of the might of worlds, and they are holden | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Blessing above us in the sunrise golden; | 11 | /˘·····/·/˘ |
| And they will be uplifted till that hour | 11 | ····/˘˘··/˘ |
| Of terrible rolling which shall rise and shake | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| This conscious nightmare from us, and we wake. | 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.