Analysis of The Christmas Of 1888
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Low in the east, against a white, cold dawn,
The black-lined silhouette of the woods was drawn,
And on a wintry waste
Of frosted streams and hillsides bare and brown,
Through thin cloud-films, a pallid ghost looked down,
The waning moon half-faced!
In that pale sky and sere, snow-waiting earth,
What sign was there of the immortal birth?
What herald of the One?
Lo! swift as thought the heavenly radiance came,
A rose-red splendor swept the sky like flame,
Up rolled the round, bright sun!
And all was changed. From a transfigured world
The moon's ghost fled, the smoke of home-hearths curled
Up the still air unblown.
In Orient warmth and brightness, did that morn
O'er Nain and Nazareth, when the Christ was born,
Break fairer than our own?
The morning's promise noon and eve fulfilled
In warm, soft sky and landscape hazy-hilled
And sunset fair as they;
A sweet reminder of His holiest time,
A summer-miracle in our winter clime,
God gave a perfect day.
The near was blended with the old and far,
And Bethlehem's hillside and the Magi's star
Seemed here, as there and then,--
Our homestead pine-tree was the Syrian palm,
Our heart's desire the angels' midnight psalm,
Peace, and good-will to men!
Scheme | AABCCB DDEFFE GGAHHX XBIXFI JJKXXK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1001010111 0110110111 010101 110101101 1111010111 010111 0111011101 1111100101 110101 111101001001 0111010111 110111 01111011 0111011111 10111 0101010111 101010010111 1101101 0101010101 011101101 01111 01010111001 010100010101 110011 0111010101 01010011 111101 10111101001 10101001011 101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,179 |
Words | 210 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 70 Views
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"The Christmas Of 1888" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23068/the-christmas-of-1888>.
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