Who Would Have Thought?
Who would have thought that even an idle songWere such a holy and celestial thingThat wickedness and envy cannot sing--That music for no moment lives with wrong?I know this, for a very grievous throng,Dark thoughts, low wishes, round my bosom cling,And, underneath, the hidden holy springStagnates because of their enchantment strong.
Blow, breath of heaven, on all this poison blow!And, heart, glow upward to this gracious breath!Between them, vanish, mist of sin and death,And let the life of life within me flow!Love is the green earth, the celestial air,And music runs like dews and rivers there!
About this text
Who Would Have Thought? 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, Who Would Have Thought?, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/who-would-have-thought.html, id L22397.
Form and metre
Who Would Have Thought? is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See 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 ABBAABBA songA · thingB · singB · wrongA · throngA · clingB · springB · strongA
- 2 ABBACC blowA · breathB · deathB · flowA · airC · thereC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who would have thought that even an idle song | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Were such a holy and celestial thing | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| That wickedness and envy cannot sing-- | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| That music for no moment lives with wrong? | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I know this, for a very grievous throng, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Dark thoughts, low wishes, round my bosom cling, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And, underneath, the hidden holy spring | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Stagnates because of their enchantment strong. | 10 | /·····˘/˘· |
| Blow, breath of heaven, on all this poison blow! | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| And, heart, glow upward to this gracious breath! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Between them, vanish, mist of sin and death, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And let the life of life within me flow! | 10 | ·········· |
| Love is the green earth, the celestial air, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And music runs like dews and rivers there! | 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.