The Well of All Healing
There's a cure for all things in the well at BallyleeWhere the scarlet cressets hang over the trembling pool:And joyful winds are blowing from the Land of Youth to me,And the heart of the earth is full.
Many and many a sunbright maiden saw the enchanted landWith star faces glimmer up from the druid wave:Many and many a pain of love was soothed by a faery handOr lost in the love it gave.
When the quiet with a ring of pearl shall wed the earth,And the scarlet berries burn dark by the stars in the pool;Oh, it's lost and deep I'll be amid the windy mirth,While the heart of the earth is full.
Words in this poem
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- druid n.
- One of an order of priests which in ancient times existed among certain branches of the Celtic race, especially among the Gauls and Britons. [L. Druides; of Celtic origin; cf. Ir. & Gael. draoi, druidh, magician, Druid, W. derwydd Druid.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Well of All Healing is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Divine Vision, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #36913; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George William Russell, The Well of All Healing, in The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36913, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/russell-divine-vision/the-well-of-all-healing.html, id L11534.
Form and metre
The Well of All Healing is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.8 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic heptameter.
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.
- 2 ABAB landA · waveB · handA · gaveB
- 3 A-A- earthA · pool · mirthA · full
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 trochaic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There's a cure for all things in the well at Ballylee | 13 | ············· |
| Where the scarlet cressets hang over the trembling pool: | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| And joyful winds are blowing from the Land of Youth to me, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| And the heart of the earth is full. | 8 | ········ |
| Many and many a sunbright maiden saw the enchanted land | 14 | /·/···/˘··˘/˘· |
| With star faces glimmer up from the druid wave: | 12 | ··/˘/˘···/˘· |
| Many and many a pain of love was soothed by a faery hand | 14 | /·/··········· |
| Or lost in the love it gave. | 7 | ······· |
| When the quiet with a ring of pearl shall wed the earth, | 12 | ··/········· |
| And the scarlet berries burn dark by the stars in the pool; | 14 | ··/˘/˘········ |
| Oh, it's lost and deep I'll be amid the windy mirth, | 13 | ·······˘/·/˘· |
| While the heart of the earth is full. | 8 | ········ |
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.