Analysis of By Reason Of Thy Law
Francis Thompson 1859 (City of Preston, Lancashire) – 1907 (London)
Here I make oath--
Although the heart that knows its bitterness
Hear loath,
And credit less--
That he who kens to meet Pain's kisses fierce
Which hiss against his tears,
Dread, loss, nor love frustrate,
Nor all iniquity of the froward years
Shall his inur-ed wing make idly bate,
Nor of the appointed quarry his staunch sight
To lose observance quite;
Seal from half-sad and all-elate
Sagacious eyes
Ultimate Paradise;
Nor shake his certitude of haughty fate.
Pacing the burning shares of many dooms,
I with stern tread do the clear-witting stars
To judgment cite,
If I have borne aright
The proving of their pure-willed ordeal.
From food of all delight
The heavenly Falconer my heart debars,
And tames with fearful glooms
The haggard to His call;
Yet sometimes comes a hand, sometimes a voice withal,
And she sits meek now, and expects the light.
In this Avernian sky,
This sultry and incumbent canopy
Of dull and doomed regret;
Where on the unseen verges yet, O yet,
At intervals,
Trembles, and falls,
Faint lightning of remembered transient sweet--
Ah, far too sweet
But to be sweet a little, a little sweet, and fleet;
Leaving this pallid trace,
This loitering and most fitful light a space,
Still some sad space,
For Grief to see her own poor face:-
Here where I keep my stand
With all o'er-anguished feet,
And no live comfort near on any hand;
Lo, I proclaim the unavoided term,
When this morass of tears, then drained and firm,
Shall be a land--
Unshaken I affirm--
Where seven-quired psalterings meet;
And all the gods move with calm hand in hand,
And eyes that know not trouble and the worm.
Scheme | ABAXXXCXCDDCXXC XXDCEDBBXED XXFFXXGGGHHHH IGIJJIJGIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111 101111100 11 0101 1111111101 110111 11111 1101001011 111111101 11001010111 110101 11110101 11 10010 111101101 1001011101 1111101101 1101 11111 010111101 111101 0100100111 011101 010111 10110101011 0111100101 0111 1100010100 110101 1100110111 1100 101 1101010101 1111 1111010010101 101101 11000110101 1111 11110111 111111 1110101 0111011101 1101011 1101111101 1101 010101 110111 0101111101 0111110001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,560 |
Words | 283 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 11, 13, 10 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 315 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 70 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 78 Views
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