Analysis of From ‘The Soul’s Travelling’
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)
God, God!
With a child’s voice I cry,
Weak, sad, confidingly—
God, God!
Thou knowest, eyelids, raised not always up
Unto Thy love (as none of ours are), droop
As ours, o’er many a tear!
Thou knowest, though Thy universe is broad,
Two little tears suffice to cover all:
Thou knowest, Thou, who art so prodigal
Of beauty, we are oft but stricken deer
Expiring in the woods—that care for none
Of those delightsome flowers they die upon.
O blissful Mouth which breathed the mournful breath
We name our souls, self-spoilt!—by that strong passion
Which paled Thee once with sighs,—by that strong death
Which made Thee once unbreathing—from the wrack
Themselves have called around them, call them back,
Back to Thee in continuous aspiration!
For here, O Lord,
For here they travel vainly,—vainly pass
From city-pavement to untrodden sward,
Where the lark finds her deep nest in the grass
Cold with the earth’s last dew. Yea, very vain
The greatest speed of all these souls of men
Unless they travel upward to the throne
Where sittest THOU, the satisfying ONE,
With help for sins and holy perfectings
For all requirements—while the archangel, raising
Unto Thy face his full ecstatic gazing,
Forgets the rush and rapture of his wings.
Scheme | AxbAxxxxbbxcx dcdeecfgfgxxxcghhx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11 101111 111 11 1111111 10111111011 11011001 11111011 1101011101 111111100 1101111101 0100011111 111101101 1101110101 111011111110 1111111111 11111101 0111011111 11100100010 1111 1111010101 11010111 1011011001 1101111101 0101111111 0111010101 11101001 11110101 11010101010 10111101010 0101010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,332 |
Words | 213 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 18 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 484 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 104 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 06, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 166 Views
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"From ‘The Soul’s Travelling’" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10227/from-%E2%80%98the-soul%E2%80%99s-travelling%E2%80%99>.
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