Analysis of Going East
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1825 – 1911
She came from the East a fair, young bride,
With a light and a bounding heart,
To find in the distant West a home
With her husband to make a start.
He builded his cabin far away,
Where the prairie flower bloomed wild;
Her love made lighter all his toil,
And joy and hope around him smiled.
She plied her hands to life's homely tasks,
And helped to build his fortunes up;
While joy and grief, like bitter and sweet,
Were mingled and mixed in her cup.
He sowed in his fields of golden grain,
All the strength of his manly prime;
Nor music of birds, nor brooks, nor bees,
Was as sweet as the dollar's chime.
She toiled and waited through weary years
For the fortune that came at length;
But toil and care and hope deferred,
Had stolen and wasted her strength.
The cabin changed to a stately home,
Rich carpets were hushing her tread;
But light was fading from her eye,
And the bloom from her cheek had fled.
Slower and heavier grew her step,
While his gold and his gains increased;
But his proud domain had not the charm
Of her humble home in the East.
Within her eye was a restless light,
And a yearning that never ceased,
A longing to see the dear old home
She had left in the distant East.
A longing to clasp her mother's hand,
And nestle close to her heart,
And to feel the heavy cares of life
Like the sun-kissed shadows depart.
Her husband was adding field to field,
And new wealth to his golden store;
And little thought the shadow of death
Was entering in at his door.
He had no line to sound the depths
Of her tears repressed and unshed;
Nor dreamed 'mid plenty a human heart
Could be starving, but not for bread.
The hungry heart was stilled at last;
Its restless, baffled yearning ceased.
A lonely man sat by the bier
Of a corpse that was going East.
Scheme | ABCB XDXD XEXE XFXF XGXG CHXH XIXI XICI XBXB XJXJ XABH XIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (92%) |
Metre | 111010111 10100101 110010101 10101101 11110101 10101011 01110111 01010111 110111101 01111101 110111001 01001001 110111101 10111101 110111111 11110101 110101101 10101111 11010101 11001001 010110101 1100101 11110101 00110111 100100101 11101101 111011101 10101001 010110101 00101101 010110111 11100101 010110101 0101101 011010111 1011101 010110111 01111101 01010111 11000111 11111101 1010101 111100101 11101111 01011111 11010101 01011101 10111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,766 |
Words | 337 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 115 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 21, 2023
- 1:42 min read
- 98 Views
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"Going East" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13718/going-east>.
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