God
In his malodorous brain what slugs and mire,Lanthorned in his oblique eyes, guttering burned!His body lodged a rat where men nursed souls:The world flashed grape-green eyes of a foiled catTo him. On fragments of an old shrunk power,On shy and maimed, on women wrung awry,He lay—a bullying hulk—to crush them more;But when one fearless turned and clawed like bronze,Cringing was easy to blunt these stern paws,And he would weigh the heavier on those after.
Who rests in God’s mean flattery now? Your wealthIs but his cunning to make death more hard,Your iron sinews take more pain in breaking;And he has made the market for your beautyToo poor to buy although you die to sell.Only that he has never heard of sleep,And when the cats come out the rats are sly,Here we are safe till he slinks in at dawn.
But he has gnawed a fibre from strange roots,And in the morning some pale wonder ceases.Things are not strange; and strange things are forgetful.Ah! If the day were arid, somehow lostOut of us; but it is as hair of us,And only in the hush no wind stirs it,And in the light vague trouble lifts and breathes,And restlessness still shadows the lost ways.The fingers shut on voices that pass throughWhere blind farewells are taken easily.
Words in this poem
- malodorous a.
- Offensive to the sense of smell; ill-smelling. -- Mal*o"dor*ous*ness. n. Carlyle.
- hulk n.
- The body of a ship or decked vessel of any kind; esp., the body of an old vessel laid by as unfit for service. [OE. hulke a heavy ship, AS. hulc a light, swift ship; akin to D. hulk a ship of burden, G. holk, OHG. holcho; perh. fr. LL. holcas, Gr. Wolf, Holcad.]
- clawed a.
- Furnished with claws. N. Grew.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- fibre n.
- One of the delicate, threadlike portions of which the tissues of plants and animals are in part constituted; as, the fiber of flax or of muscle. [F. fibre, L. fibra.]
- forgetful a.
- Apt to forget; easily losing remembrance; as, a forgetful man should use helps to strengthen his memory.
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
God is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Isaac Rosenberg, Project Gutenberg ebook #66889; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Isaac Rosenberg, God, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/god.html, id L02543.
Form and metre
God is 28 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In his malodorous brain what slugs and mire, | 11 | ··˘/˘˘····· |
| Lanthorned in his oblique eyes, guttering burned! | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| His body lodged a rat where men nursed souls: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The world flashed grape-green eyes of a foiled cat | 10 | ·········· |
| To him. On fragments of an old shrunk power, | 10 | ···/˘····/ |
| On shy and maimed, on women wrung awry, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| He lay—a bullying hulk—to crush them more; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But when one fearless turned and clawed like bronze, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Cringing was easy to blunt these stern paws, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And he would weigh the heavier on those after. | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Who rests in God’s mean flattery now? Your wealth | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Is but his cunning to make death more hard, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Your iron sinews take more pain in breaking; | 10 | ·/······/˘ |
| And he has made the market for your beauty | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Too poor to buy although you die to sell. | 10 | ·········· |
| Only that he has never heard of sleep, | 9 | /˘···/··· |
| And when the cats come out the rats are sly, | 10 | ·········· |
| Here we are safe till he slinks in at dawn. | 10 | ·········· |
| But he has gnawed a fibre from strange roots, | 9 | ·····/··· |
| And in the morning some pale wonder ceases. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Things are not strange; and strange things are forgetful. | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Ah! If the day were arid, somehow lost | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| Out of us; but it is as hair of us, | 10 | ·········· |
| And only in the hush no wind stirs it, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And in the light vague trouble lifts and breathes, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And restlessness still shadows the lost ways. | 9 | ·/˘·/···· |
| The fingers shut on voices that pass through | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Where blind farewells are taken easily. | 9 | ···/·/˘/˘ |
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.