Poems
Not unto us, O Lord,Not unto us the rapture of the day,The peace of night, or love’s divine surprise,High heart, high speech, high deeds ’mid honouring eyes;For at Thy wordAll these are taken away.
Not unto us, O Lord:To us thou givest the scorn, the scourge, the scar,The ache of life, the loneliness of death,The insufferable sufficiency of breath;And with Thy swordThou piercest very far.
Not unto us, O Lord:Nay, Lord, but unto her be all things given--My light and life and earth and sky be blasted--But let not all that wealth of loss be wasted:Let Hell affordThe pavement of her Heaven!
Words in this poem
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
- loneliness n.
- The condition of being lonely; solitude; seclusion.
- blasted a.
- Blighted; withered.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poems is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Cust, Poems, (1861–1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-henry-cust/non-nobis.html, id L16287.
Form and metre
Non Nobis is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -ABB-A lord · dayA · surpriseB · eyesB · word · awayA
- 2 ABCCAB lordA · scarB · deathC · breathC · swordA · farB
- 3 A---A- lordA · given · blasted · wasted · affordA · heaven
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Not unto us, O Lord, | 6 | ······ |
| Not unto us the rapture of the day, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The peace of night, or love’s divine surprise, | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| High heart, high speech, high deeds ’mid honouring eyes; | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| For at Thy word | 4 | ···· |
| All these are taken away. | 7 | ···/˘˘/ |
| Not unto us, O Lord: | 6 | ······ |
| To us thou givest the scorn, the scourge, the scar, | 11 | ··········· |
| The ache of life, the loneliness of death, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The insufferable sufficiency of breath; | 12 | ·˘/˘˘˘˘/˘˘·· |
| And with Thy sword | 4 | ···· |
| Thou piercest very far. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Not unto us, O Lord: | 6 | ······ |
| Nay, Lord, but unto her be all things given-- | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| My light and life and earth and sky be blasted-- | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| But let not all that wealth of loss be wasted: | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Let Hell afford | 4 | ··˘/ |
| The pavement of her Heaven! | 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.