O Earth, Sufficing All Our Needs
O earth, sufficing all our needs, O youWith room for body and for spirit too,How patient while your children vex their soulsDevising alien heavens beyond your blue!
Dear dwelling of the immortal and unseen,How obstinate in my blindness have I been,Not comprehending what your tender calls,Veiled promises and re-assurance, mean.
Not far and cold the way that they have goneWho through your sundering darkness have withdrawn;Almost within our hand-reach they remainWho pass beyond the sequence of the dawn.
Not far and strange the Heaven, but very near,Your children's hearts unknowingly hold dear.At times we almost catch the door swung wide.And unforgotten voice almost we hear,
I am the heir of Heaven--and you are just.You, you alone I know--and you I trust.I have sought God beyond his farthest star--But here I find Him, in your quickening dust.
Words in this poem
- sufficing a.
- Affording enough; satisfying.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- quickening n.
- The act or process of making or of becoming quick.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O Earth, Sufficing All Our Needs is in the public domain. This text is taken from New Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59897; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles G. D. Roberts, O Earth, Sufficing All Our Needs, in New Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59897, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/roberts-new-poems/o-earth-sufficing-all-our-needs.html, id L11120.
Form and metre
O Earth, Sufficing All Our Needs is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AA-A youA · tooA · souls · blueA
- 2 A--A unseenA · been · calls · meanA
- 3 AA-A goneA · withdrawnA · remain · dawnA
- 4 AA-A nearA · dearA · wide · hearA
- 5 AA-A justA · trustA · star · dustA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O earth, sufficing all our needs, O you | 10 | ··˘/˘·/··· |
| With room for body and for spirit too, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| How patient while your children vex their souls | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Devising alien heavens beyond your blue! | 11 | ˘/˘/˘/˘···· |
| Dear dwelling of the immortal and unseen, | 11 | ·/˘··˘/˘·˘/ |
| How obstinate in my blindness have I been, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Not comprehending what your tender calls, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Veiled promises and re-assurance, mean. | 10 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘· |
| Not far and cold the way that they have gone | 10 | ·········· |
| Who through your sundering darkness have withdrawn; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Almost within our hand-reach they remain | 10 | /···/···˘/ |
| Who pass beyond the sequence of the dawn. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Not far and strange the Heaven, but very near, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Your children's hearts unknowingly hold dear. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| At times we almost catch the door swung wide. | 10 | ···/······ |
| And unforgotten voice almost we hear, | 10 | ······/··· |
| I am the heir of Heaven--and you are just. | 10 | ·····/···· |
| You, you alone I know--and you I trust. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| I have sought God beyond his farthest star-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But here I find Him, in your quickening dust. | 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.