Analysis of The Magic Wand

Ada Cambridge 1844 (St Germans, Norfolk) – 1926 (Melbourne)



As an April garden
Breathes the scent of rain -
Rain that calls her treasures
Back to life again -
So my spirit quickens to the opening strain.

In its sheath of darkness
Fancy's folded wing
Thrills and stirs and quivers
To another spring,
When the bow is drawn across the trembling string.

In their grave of silence,
In their husk and core,
Dreams that winter buried
Feel the sap once more
Running warm and vital, as it ran before.

Into secret chambers
Where old passions sleep,
Through the long-closed shutters,
Lights of morning creep:
Through the opening doorway airs of morning sweep.

Hope resurgent, and Youth,
With their dancing train,
Mingled grief and glory,
Blended bliss and pain,
Ecstasies and agonies, come forth and live again.

Wizard hand that summoned
Each forgotten ghost,
Plays like wind or water
With the spell-bound host,
Sailing seas supernal, for no earthly coast.

Yet no magic music
That an ear can mark
Draws them winging upward
Through the mist and dark,
As the sky at sunrise draws the mounting lark.

Through the poet-spirit,
Touched with heavenly fire,
Heavenly voices whisper
In the wood and wire.
God is the musician, and my soul the lyre.


Scheme XABCA XDBDD XEXEE BFBFF XAXAC XGHGG XIXII XHHHX
Poetic Form Etheree  (28%)
Tetractys  (25%)
Metre 111010 10111 111010 11101 111010101001 011110 1101 10101 10101 101110101001 011110 01101 111010 10111 10101011101 011010 11101 101110 11101 10100111101 101001 11101 101010 10101 10100110101 101110 10101 111110 10111 101111101 111010 11111 111010 10101 1011110101 101010 1110010 1001010 001010 11001001101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,136
Words 203
Sentences 10
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 117
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 06, 2023

1:01 min read
61

Ada Cambridge

Ada Cambridge, later known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian writer. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works. Many of her novels were serialised in Australian newspapers but never published in book form. While she was known to friends and family by her married name, Ada Cross, her newspaper readers knew her as A. C.. She later reverted to her maiden name, Ada Cambridge, and that is how she is known today.  more…

All Ada Cambridge poems | Ada Cambridge Books

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