What Man Is There of You?
The homely words how often read!How seldom fully known!"Which father of you, asked for bread,Would give his son a stone?"
How oft has bitter tear been shed,And heaved how many a groan,Because thou wouldst not give for breadThe thing that was a stone!
How oft the child thou wouldst have fed,Thy gift away has thrown!He prayed, thou heard'st, and gav'st the bread:He cried, "It is a stone!"
Lord, if I ask in doubt and dreadLest I be left to moan,Am I not he who, asked for bread,Would give his son a stone?
Words in this poem
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What Man Is There of You? 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, What Man Is There of You?, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/what-man-is-there-of-you.html, id L22490.
Form and metre
What Man Is There of You? is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 readA · knownB · breadA · stoneB
- 2 ABAB shedA · groanB · breadA · stoneB
- 3 ABAB fedA · thrownB · breadA · stoneB
- 4 ABAB dreadA · moanB · breadA · stoneB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The homely words how often read! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| How seldom fully known! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| "Which father of you, asked for bread, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Would give his son a stone?" | 6 | ······ |
| How oft has bitter tear been shed, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And heaved how many a groan, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Because thou wouldst not give for bread | 8 | ········ |
| The thing that was a stone! | 6 | ······ |
| How oft the child thou wouldst have fed, | 8 | ········ |
| Thy gift away has thrown! | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| He prayed, thou heard'st, and gav'st the bread: | 8 | ········ |
| He cried, "It is a stone!" | 6 | ······ |
| Lord, if I ask in doubt and dread | 8 | ········ |
| Lest I be left to moan, | 6 | ······ |
| Am I not he who, asked for bread, | 8 | ········ |
| Would give his son a stone? | 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.