Analysis of The Quest
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I sought Him on the purple seas,
I sought Him on the peaks aflame;
Amid the gloom of giant trees
And canyons lone I called His name;
The wasted ways of earth I trod:
In vain! In vain! I found not God.
I sought Him in the hives of men,
The cities grand, the hamlets gray,
The temples old beyond my ken,
The tabernacles of to-day;
All life that is, from cloud to clod
I sought. . . . Alas! I found not God.
Then after roamings far and wide,
In streets and seas and deserts wild,
I came to stand at last beside
The death-bed of my little child.
Lo! as I bent beneath the rod
I raised my eyes . . . and there was God.
Scheme | ABABCC DEDECC FGFGCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 11110101 01011101 01011111 01011111 01011111 11100111 01010101 01010111 01111 11111111 11011111 1101101 01010101 11111101 01111101 11110101 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 604 |
Words | 124 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 152 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 137 Views
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"The Quest" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32622/the-quest>.
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