Analysis of The Altar
George Herbert 1593 (Montgomery) – 1633 (Bemerton)
A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,
Made of a heart and cemented with tears;
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name.
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.
Scheme | ABCCDDEEFFCCGGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101011101 1101001011 11111111 11011101 0101 1101 1101 11111 111 1111 1011 1111 11111111 11111111 11111011 0100110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 567 |
Words | 91 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 16 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 353 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 89 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 28 sec read
- 234 Views
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"The Altar" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15386/the-altar>.
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