The Word of God
Where the bud has never blownWho for scent is debtor?Where the spirit rests unknownFatal is the letter.
In thee, Jesus, Godhead-stored,All things we inherit,For thou art the very WordAnd the very Spirit!
About this text
The Word of God 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 Word of God, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/the-word-of-god.html, id L22324.
Form and metre
The Word of God is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB blownA · debtorB · unknownA · letterB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Where the bud has never blown | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Who for scent is debtor? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Where the spirit rests unknown | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Fatal is the letter. | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| In thee, Jesus, Godhead-stored, | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| All things we inherit, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| For thou art the very Word | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the very Spirit! | 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.