Analysis of How Mary Grew
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
With wisdom far beyond her years,
And graver than her wondering peers,
So strong, so mild, combining still
The tender heart and queenly will,
To conscience and to duty true,
So, up from childhood, Mary Grew!
Then in her gracious womanhood
She gave her days to doing good.
She dared the scornful laugh of men,
The hounding mob, the slanderer's pen.
She did the work she found to do,--
A Christian heroine, Mary Grew!
The freed slave thanks her; blessing comes
To her from women's weary homes;
The wronged and erring find in her
Their censor mild and comforter.
The world were safe if but a few
Could grow in grace as Mary Grew!
So, New Year's Eve, I sit and say,
By this low wood-fire, ashen gray;
Just wishing, as the night shuts down,
That I could hear in Boston town,
In pleasant Chestnut Avenue,
From her own lips, how Mary Grew!
And hear her graceful hostess tell
The silver-voiced oracle
Who lately through her parlors spoke
As through Dodona's sacred oak,
A wiser truth than any told
By Sappho's lips of ruddy gold,--
The way to make the world anew,
Is just to grow--as Mary Grew
Scheme | AABBCC DDEECC XXFFCC GGHHCC XXIIJJCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 010101001 11110101 0101011 11001101 1111101 1001010 11011101 11010111 0101011 11011111 010100101 01110101 10110101 01010100 11010100 01011101 11011101 11111101 111110101 11010111 11110101 010110 10111101 01010101 0101100 11010101 111101 01011101 1111101 01110101 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,062 |
Words | 202 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 06, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 38 Views
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