Were I a Skilful Painter
Were I a skilful painter,My pencil, not my pen,Should try to teach thee hope and fear,And who would blame me then?--Fear of the tide of darknessThat floweth fast behind,And hope to make thee journey onIn the journey of the mind.
Were I a skilful painter,What should I paint for thee?--A tiny spring-bud peeping outFrom a withered wintry tree;The warm blue sky of summerO'er jagged ice and snow,And water hurrying gladsome outFrom a cavern down below;
The dim light of a beaconUpon a stormy sea,Where a lonely ship to windward beatsFor life and liberty;A watery sun-ray gleamingAthwart a sullen cloudAnd falling on some grassy flowerThe rain had earthward bowed;
Morn peeping o'er a mountain,In ambush for the dark,And a traveller in the vale belowRejoicing like a lark;A taper nearly vanishedAmid the dawning gray,And a maiden lifting up her head,And lo, the coming day!
I am no skilful painter;Let who will blame me thenThat I would teach thee hope and fearWith my plain-talking pen!--Fear of the tide of darknessThat floweth fast behind,And hope to make thee journey onIn the journey of the mind.
Words in this poem
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- gladsome a.
- Pleased; joyful; cheerful.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- earthward adv.
- Toward the earth; -- opposed to heavenward or skyward.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Were I a Skilful Painter 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, Were I a Skilful Painter, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/were-i-a-skilful-painter.html, id L22258.
Form and metre
Were I a Skilful Painter is 40 lines in 5 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -A-A-B-B painter · penA · fear · thenA · darkness · behindB · on · mindB
- 2 -ABA-CBC painter · theeA · outB · treeA · summer · snowC · outB · belowC
- 3 -----A-A beacon · sea · beats · liberty · gleaming · cloudA · flower · bowedA
- 4 -A-A-B-B mountain · darkA · below · larkA · vanished · grayB · head · dayB
- 5 -A-A-B-B painter · thenA · fear · penA · darkness · behindB · on · mindB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Were I a skilful painter, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| My pencil, not my pen, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Should try to teach thee hope and fear, | 8 | ········ |
| And who would blame me then?-- | 6 | ······ |
| Fear of the tide of darkness | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That floweth fast behind, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And hope to make thee journey on | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In the journey of the mind. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Were I a skilful painter, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| What should I paint for thee?-- | 6 | ······ |
| A tiny spring-bud peeping out | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| From a withered wintry tree; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| The warm blue sky of summer | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| O'er jagged ice and snow, | 5 | ····· |
| And water hurrying gladsome out | 9 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘· |
| From a cavern down below; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| The dim light of a beacon | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Upon a stormy sea, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where a lonely ship to windward beats | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| For life and liberty; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| A watery sun-ray gleaming | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| Athwart a sullen cloud | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| And falling on some grassy flower | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| The rain had earthward bowed; | 6 | ······ |
| Morn peeping o'er a mountain, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| In ambush for the dark, | 6 | ·/···· |
| And a traveller in the vale below | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| Rejoicing like a lark; | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| A taper nearly vanished | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Amid the dawning gray, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| And a maiden lifting up her head, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| And lo, the coming day! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I am no skilful painter; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Let who will blame me then | 6 | ······ |
| That I would teach thee hope and fear | 8 | ········ |
| With my plain-talking pen!-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Fear of the tide of darkness | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That floweth fast behind, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And hope to make thee journey on | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In the journey of the mind. | 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.