Analysis of Earth the Healer, Earth the Keeper
William Morris 1834 (Walthamstow) – 1896 (London)
So swift the hours are moving
Unto the time unproved:
Farewell my love unloving,
Farewell my love beloved!
What! are we not glad-hearted?
Is there no deed to do?
Is not all fear departed
And Spring-tide blossomed new?
The sails swell out above us,
The sea-ridge lifts the keel;
For They have called who love us,
Who bear the gifts that heal:
A crown for him that winneth,
A bed for him that fails,
A glory that beginneth
In never-dying tales.
Yet now the pain is ended
And the glad hand grips the sword,
Look on thy life amended
And deal out due award.
Think of the thankless morning,
The gifts of noon unused;
Think of the eve of scorning,
The night of prayer refused.
And yet. The life before it,
Dost thou remember aught,
What terrors shivered o'er it
Born from the hell of thought?
And this that cometh after:
How dost thou live, and dare
To meet its empty laughter,
To face its friendless care?
In fear didst thou desire,
At peace dost thou regret,
The wasting of the fire,
The tangling of the net.
Love came and gat fair greeting;
Love went; and left no shame.
Shall both the twilights meeting
The summer sunlight blame?
What! cometh love and goeth
Like the dark night's empty wind,
Because thy folly soweth
The harvest of the blind?
Hast thou slain love with sorrow?
Have thy tears quenched the sun?
Nay even yet tomorrow
Shall many a deed be done.
This twilight sea thou sailest,
Has it grown dim and black
For that wherein thou failest,
And the story of thy lack?
Peace then! for thine old grieving
Was born of Earth the kind,
And the sad tale thou art leaving
Earth shall not leave behind.
Peace! for that joy abiding
Whereon thou layest hold
Earth keepeth for a tiding
For the day when this is old.
Thy soul and life shall perish,
And thy name as last night's wind;
But Earth the deed shall cherish
That thou today shalt find.
And all thy joy and sorrow
So great but yesterday,
So light a thing tomorrow,
Shall never pass away.
Lo! lo! the dawn-blink yonder,
The sunrise draweth nigh,
And men forget to wonder
That they were born to die.
Then praise the deed that wendeth
Through the daylight and the mirth!
The tale that never endeth
Whoso may dwell on earth.
Scheme | ABAX CDCD EFEF GHGH CICI AJAJ KBKX LMLM LNLN AOAO GPGP QRQR BSBS APAP ATAT UPUP QVQV LWLW GGGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 11010110 100101 1111 11101 1111110 111111 1111010 011101 0111011 011101 1111111 110111 011111 011111 01011 010101 1101110 0011101 1111010 011101 1101010 011101 110111 011101 0101011 110101 11010101 110111 0111010 111101 1111010 11111 0111010 111101 0101010 010101 1101110 110111 110110 01011 110101 1011101 011101 010101 1111110 111101 110101 1100111 11111 111101 110111 0010111 1111110 111101 00111110 111101 1111010 1111 111010 1011111 1101110 0111111 1101110 110111 0111010 11110 110101 110101 1101110 0111 0101110 110111 110111 101001 011101 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,106 |
Words | 404 |
Sentences | 32 |
Stanzas | 19 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 76 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 89 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:02 min read
- 67 Views
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"Earth the Healer, Earth the Keeper" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/41093/earth-the-healer%2C-earth-the-keeper>.
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