Good Friday
Am I a stone and not a sheepThat I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,And yet not weep?
Not so those women lovedWho with exceeding grief lamented Thee;Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and MoonWhich hid their faces in a starless sky,A horror of great darkness at broad noon--I, only I.
Yet give not o'er,But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;Greater than Moses, turn and look once moreAnd smite a rock.
Words in this poem
- lamented a.
- Mourned for; bewailed.
- bitterly adv.
- In a bitter manner.
- starless a.
- Being without stars; having no stars visible; as, a starless night.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Good Friday is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, Good Friday, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/good-friday.html, id L04341.
Form and metre
Good Friday is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 ABBA sheepA · crossB · lossB · weepA
- 3 ABAB moonA · skyB · noonA · iB
- 4 -A-A o'er · flockA · more · rockA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Am I a stone and not a sheep | 8 | ········ |
| That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross, | 10 | ·········· |
| To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And yet not weep? | 4 | ···· |
| Not so those women loved | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee; | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; | 10 | ··/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Not so the thief was moved; | 6 | ······ |
| Not so the Sun and Moon | 6 | ······ |
| Which hid their faces in a starless sky, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A horror of great darkness at broad noon-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I, only I. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Yet give not o'er, | 4 | ···· |
| But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Greater than Moses, turn and look once more | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And smite a rock. | 4 | ···· |
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.