Analysis of The Hill.

Robert Crawford 1959 (Bellshill)



The holy lamps of Evening shine
Sheer in the West — the air is still —
As I sit with this heart of mine
At the foot of Parnassus' hill.
Through my life's day I've reached to this —
To see where the immortals trod,
Winding up the dark height, I wis,
Till they came on the light of God.
Ah! I, a pilgrim with tired feet,
Have touched the verge of their renown,
As I look up on Homer's seat
And know the bards may not come down.
Still on those peaks, as powers apart,
They breathe the air now breathed by me,
For each has climbed the human heart —
The deathless hill of Poesy!


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGHGC
Poetic Form
Metre 01011101 10010111 11111111 1011101 11111111 11100101 10101111 11110111 110101101 11011101 11111101 01011111 111111001 11011111 11110101 01111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 574
Words 119
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 435
Words per stanza (avg) 117
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
74

Robert Crawford

Robert Crawford FRSE FBA is a Scottish poet, scholar and critic. He is currently Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.  more…

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