V.—Cleaning the Windows
Wash the window; rub it dry;Make the ray-door clean and bright:He who lords it in the skyLoves on cottage floors to light!
Looking over sea and beck,Mountain-forest, orchard-bloom,He can spy the smallest speckAnywhere about the room!
See how bright his torch is blazingIn the heart of mother's store!Strange! I never saw him gazingSo into that press before!
Ah, I see!--the wooden paneIn the window, dull and dead,Father called its loss a gain,And a glass one put instead!
What a difference it makes!How it melts the filmy gloom!What a little more it takesMuch to brighten up a room!
There I spy a dusty streak!There a corner not quite clean!There a cobweb! There the sneakOf a spider, watching keen!
Lord of suns, and eyes that see,Shine into me, see and show;Leave no darksome spot in meWhere thou dost not shining go.
Fill my spirit full of eyes,Doors of light in every part;Open windows to the skiesThat no moth corrupt my heart.
Words in this poem
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- filmy a.
- Composed of film or films.
- brighten v. t.
- To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.
- cobweb n.
- The network spread by a spider to catch its prey. [Cob a spider + web.]
- darksome a.
- Dark; gloomy; obscure; shaded; cheerless.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
V.—Cleaning the Windows 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, V.—Cleaning the Windows, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/v-cleaning-the-windows.html, id L22517.
Form and metre
V.—Cleaning the Windows is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 dryA · brightB · skyA · lightB
- 2 ABAB beckA · bloomB · speckA · roomB
- 3 ABAB blazingA · storeB · gazingA · beforeB
- 4 ABAB paneA · deadB · gainA · insteadB
- 5 ABAB makesA · gloomB · takesA · roomB
- 6 ABAB streakA · cleanB · sneakA · keenB
- 7 ABAB seeA · showB · meA · goB
- 8 ABAB eyesA · partB · skiesA · heartB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wash the window; rub it dry; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Make the ray-door clean and bright: | 7 | ······· |
| He who lords it in the sky | 7 | ······· |
| Loves on cottage floors to light! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Looking over sea and beck, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Mountain-forest, orchard-bloom, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| He can spy the smallest speck | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Anywhere about the room! | 7 | /˘····· |
| See how bright his torch is blazing | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In the heart of mother's store! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Strange! I never saw him gazing | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| So into that press before! | 7 | ······· |
| Ah, I see!--the wooden pane | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In the window, dull and dead, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Father called its loss a gain, | 7 | /˘····· |
| And a glass one put instead! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| What a difference it makes! | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| How it melts the filmy gloom! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| What a little more it takes | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Much to brighten up a room! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| There I spy a dusty streak! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| There a corner not quite clean! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| There a cobweb! There the sneak | 7 | ··/···· |
| Of a spider, watching keen! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Lord of suns, and eyes that see, | 7 | ······· |
| Shine into me, see and show; | 7 | ······· |
| Leave no darksome spot in me | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where thou dost not shining go. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Fill my spirit full of eyes, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Doors of light in every part; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Open windows to the skies | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| That no moth corrupt my heart. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
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.