Truth, Not Form!
I came upon a fountain on my wayWhen it was hot, and sat me down to drinkIts sparkling stream, when all around the brinkI spied full many vessels made of clay,Whereon were written, not without display,In deep engraving or with merely ink,The blessings which each owner seemed to thinkWould light on him who drank with each alway.I looked so hard my eyes were looking doubleInto them all, but when I came to seeThat they were filthy, each in his degree,I bent my head, though not without some trouble,To where the little waves did leap and bubble,And so I journeyed on most pleasantly.
Words in this poem
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- pleasantly adv.
- In a pleasant manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Truth, Not Form! 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, Truth, Not Form!, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/truth-not-form.html, id L22483.
Form and metre
Truth, Not Form! is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 ABBAABB-CDDCC- wayA · drinkB · brinkB · clayA · displayA · inkB · thinkB · alway · doubleC · seeD · degreeD · troubleC · bubbleC · pleasantly
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 came upon a fountain on my way | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When it was hot, and sat me down to drink | 10 | ·········· |
| Its sparkling stream, when all around the brink | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I spied full many vessels made of clay, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Whereon were written, not without display, | 10 | ˘/·/˘···˘/ |
| In deep engraving or with merely ink, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The blessings which each owner seemed to think | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Would light on him who drank with each alway. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| I looked so hard my eyes were looking double | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Into them all, but when I came to see | 10 | ·········· |
| That they were filthy, each in his degree, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| I bent my head, though not without some trouble, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| To where the little waves did leap and bubble, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And so I journeyed on most pleasantly. | 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.