Analysis of Thanksgiving

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Our cares are bold and push their way
Upon our thought and feeling.
They hang about us all the day,
Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives
And conquers if we let it.

There's not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past's wide measure.

But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.

Full many a blessing wears the guise
Of worry or of trouble.
Farseeing is the soul and wise
Who knows the mask is double.
But he who has the faith and strength
To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
To gladden every morrow.

We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o'er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.


Scheme AXAXABXB CDCDEFXF GBGB XHIH JKJKXLEL XDIDLHXH
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Metre 11110111 0111010 110100101 1101010 11110101 11101110 010110101 1101010 101110111 01101010 11011101 10111010 10101001 1110011 110111101 0101111 11010101 1111010 01011101 1101110 11011111 1101011 111110111 1101111 110010101 1101110 110101 1101110 11110101 1111110 1101011 11010010 11110101 110110 010010101 1101110 01011101 11011101 01011111 011010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,277
Words 246
Sentences 14
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 4, 4, 8, 8
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 167
Words per stanza (avg) 41
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:14 min read
126

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

All Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems | Ella Wheeler Wilcox Books

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