# Riddles explained — Poetry > Chapter companion for Poetry by George MacDonald. ## What happens A series of playful riddles describing natural objects and phenomena through metaphorical language, inviting the reader to guess their subjects. ## Key lines > I have only one foot, but thousands of toes; My one foot stands well, but never goes; I’ve a good many arms, if you count them all, But hundreds of fingers, large and small; From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows; I breathe with my hair, and I drink with my toes; I grow bigger and bigger about the waist Although I am always very tight laced; None e’er saw me eat⁠—I’ve no mouth to bite! Yet I eat all day, and digest all night. In the summer, with song I shake and quiver, But in winter I fast and groan and shiver. A tree is described: its trunk is one foot, its roots are toes, its branches are arms, its leaves are fingers and hair, it takes in water through roots, its trunk expands with growth, it absorbs sunlight and nutrients, and it rustles in summer while standing bare in winter. _First riddle personifies a tree._ > There is a plough that hath no share, Only a coulter that parteth fair; But the ridges they rise To a terrible size Or ever the coulter comes near to tear: The horses and ridges fierce battle make; The horses are safe, but the plough may break. Seed cast in its furrows, or green or sear, Will lift to the sun neither blade nor ear: Down it drops plumb Where no spring-times come, Nor needeth it any harrowing gear; Wheat nor poppy nor blade has been found Able to grow on the naked ground. A ship at sea: the hull is the plough without a share, the prow is the coulter, waves are ridges, the ship may break but horses (the crew) are safe, and anything thrown overboard sinks to the ocean floor where nothing grows. _Second riddle describes a ship._ > Who is it that sleeps like a top all night, And wakes in the morning so fresh and bright That he breaks his bed as he gets up, And leaves it smashed like a china cup? A chick or bird hatching from an egg: it sleeps curled inside, then breaks the shell upon waking. _Third riddle about a hatching bird._ > I’ve a very long nose, but what of that? It is not too long to lie on a mat! I have very big jaws, but never get fat: I don’t go to church, and I’m not a church rat! I’ve a mouth in my middle my food goes in at, Just like a skate’s⁠—that’s a fish that’s a flat. In summer I’m seldom able to breathe, But when winter his blades in ice doth sheathe I swell my one lung, I look big and I puff, And I sometimes hiss.⁠—There, that’s enough! A bellows: its long nozzle is the nose, its wide sides are jaws, the opening is in the middle, it is used in winter to blow air on fires, and it hisses when used. _Fourth riddle about a bellows._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters/riddles - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_8_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters