Analysis of Church—Door Should Still Stand Open
Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)
Church-doors should still stand open, night and day,
Open to all who come for praise or prayer,
Laden with gift of love or load of care,
Nimbused with gold, or flecked with locks of gray,
Mother, or snow-white bride, or pallid clay,
The blithe, the sad, the uncomely as the fair,
Each on his secret errand wending there,
Nor even the mighty and strong be turned away.
And so the poet's heart should ever be
Portal of joy and welcomer of woe,
That makes the deaf to hear, the blind to see,
Open confessional for high and low,
An unshut shrine where all may come and go,
And by their tears an enriched sanctuary.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDCDDC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110101 1011111111 1011111111 111111111 1011111101 010101101 1111010101 110010011101 0101011101 10110111 1101110111 1001001101 111111101 0111101100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 605 |
Words | 116 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 474 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 115 Views
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"Church—Door Should Still Stand Open" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/703/church%E2%80%94door-should-still-stand-open>.
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