Unsolved
Amid my books I lived the hurrying years,Disdaining kinship with my fellow man;Alike to me were human smiles and tears,I cared not whither Earth's great life-stream ran,Till as I knelt before my mouldered shrine,God made me look into a woman's eyes;And I, who thought all earthly wisdom mine,Knew in a moment that the eternal skiesWere measured but in inches, to the questThat lay before me in that mystic gaze."Surely I have been errant: it is bestThat I should tread, with men their human ways."God took the teacher, ere the task was learned,And to my lonely books again I turned.
Words in this poem
- 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]
- kinship n.
- Family relationship.
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- errant n.
- One who wanders about. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Unsolved is in the public domain. This text is taken from In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John McCrae, Unsolved, in In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mccrae-flanders/unsolved.html, id L17040.
Form and metre
Unsolved is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG yearsA · manB · tearsA · ranB · shrineC · eyesD · mineC · skiesD · questE · gazeF · bestE · waysF · learnedG · turnedG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Amid my books I lived the hurrying years, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Disdaining kinship with my fellow man; | 10 | ˘/˘/···/˘· |
| Alike to me were human smiles and tears, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| I cared not whither Earth's great life-stream ran, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Till as I knelt before my mouldered shrine, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| God made me look into a woman's eyes; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And I, who thought all earthly wisdom mine, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Knew in a moment that the eternal skies | 11 | ···/˘··˘/˘· |
| Were measured but in inches, to the quest | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That lay before me in that mystic gaze. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| "Surely I have been errant: it is best | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| That I should tread, with men their human ways." | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| God took the teacher, ere the task was learned, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And to my lonely books again I turned. | 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.