Analysis of White Moments
Katharine Lee Bates 1859 (Falmouth) – 1929 (Wellesley)
THE best of life, what is it but white moments?
Those swift illuminations when we see
The flying shadows on the fragrant meadows
As God beholds them from eternity.
White moments, when the bliss of being worships,
And fear and shame are heretics that burn
In holy fire of exquisite desire
For love's surrender and for love's return.
White moments, when a Power above the artist
Catches his plodding chisel, sets it free,
And from each urgent stroke there springs emergent
The wayward grace that laughs at industry.
White moments, when the drowsing soul, sense-muffled,
Is stung awake by some keen arrow-flight
And rends the bestial, claiming its celestial
Succession in the lineage of light.
White moments, when the spirit, long confronted
By all the bitter formulæ of fate,
Inveterate romancer, finds its answer
In some mysterious faith inviolate.
White moments, when the silence steals on sorrow,
And in that hush the heart becomes aware
Of wings that brood it, visions that seclude it
Forevermore from folly, fear and care.
The best of life, what is it but white moments?
Freedoms that break the chain and fling the load,
Irradiations, ardors, consecrations,
— The starry shrines along our pilgrim road.
Scheme | AbcbdefegbhbijkjlmfnopnpAqrq |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111111110 111111 010110101 111110100 11010111010 01011111 010101100010 1101001101 110101001010 1011010111 01110111010 0101111100 1101011110 1101111101 01010101010 0100010011 11010101010 11010111 010011110 01010010100 11010101110 0011010101 11111101011 1110101 01111111110 1011010101 11010 01010110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,189 |
Words | 202 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 968 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 200 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 71 Views
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"White Moments" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24934/white-moments>.
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