Analysis of The Goblet Of Life
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Filled is Life's goblet to the brim;
And though my eyes with tears are dim,
I see its sparkling bubbles swim,
And chant a melancholy hymn
With solemn voice and slow.
No purple flowers,--no garlands green,
Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen,
Nor maddening draughts of Hippocrene,
Like gleams of sunshine, flash between
Thick leaves of mistletoe.
This goblet, wrought with curious art,
Is filled with waters, that upstart,
When the deep fountains of the heart,
By strong convulsions rent apart,
Are running all to waste.
And as it mantling passes round,
With fennel is it wreathed and crowned,
Whose seed and foliage sun-imbrowned
Are in its waters steeped and drowned,
And give a bitter taste.
Above the lowly plants it towers,
The fennel, with its yellow flowers,
And in an earlier age than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers,
Lost vision to restore.
It gave new strength, and fearless mood;
And gladiators, fierce and rude,
Mingled it in their daily food;
And he who battled and subdued,
A wreath of fennel wore.
Then in Life's goblet freely press,
The leaves that give it bitterness,
Nor prize the colored waters less,
For in thy darkness and distress
New light and strength they give!
And he who has not learned to know
How false its sparkling bubbles show,
How bitter are the drops of woe,
With which its brim may overflow,
He has not learned to live.
The prayer of Ajax was for light;
Through all that dark and desperate fight
The blackness of that noonday night
He asked but the return of sight,
To see his foeman's face.
Let our unceasing, earnest prayer
Be, too, for light,--for strength to bear
Our portion of the weight of care,
That crushes into dumb despair
One half the human race.
O suffering, sad humanity!
O ye afflicted one; who lie
Steeped to the lips in misery,
Longing, and yet afraid to die,
Patient, though sorely tried!
I pledge you in this cup of grief,
Where floats the fennel's bitter leaf!
The Battle of our Life is brief
The alarm,--the struggle,--the relief,
Then sleep we side by side.
Scheme | AAAAB CCCCB DDDDE FFDFE GGGGH IIIIH JXJJX BBBBX KKKKL MMMML NONOP QQQQP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (37%) |
Metre | 11110101 01111111 11110101 0101001 110101 11010111 0101111 1100111 1111101 11110 110111001 1111011 10110101 11010101 110111 0111101 11011101 1101011 10110101 010101 010101110 010111010 0011001110 110101010 110101 11110101 0100101 10101101 01110001 011101 10110101 01111100 11010101 10110001 110111 01111111 11110101 11010111 1111110 111111 0111111 11110101 0101111 11100111 11111 110010101 11111111 101010111 11001101 110101 110010100 11010111 11010100 10010111 101101 11101111 1101101 010110111 001010001 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,983 |
Words | 361 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 133 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 179 Views
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"The Goblet Of Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18860/the-goblet-of-life>.
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