Analysis of Lost In The Mist
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1826 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) – 1887 (Shortlands, London)
THE thin white snow-streaks pencilling
That mountain's shoulder gray,
While in the west the pale green sky
Smiled back the dawning day,
Till from the misty east the sun
Was of a sudden born
Like a new soul in Paradise--
How long it seems since morn!
One little hour, O round red sun,
And thou and I shall come
Unto the golden gate of rest,
The open door of home:
One little hour, O weary sun,
Delay the threatened eve
Till my tired feet that pleasant door
Enter and never leave.
Ye rooks that fly in slender file
Into the thick'ning gloom,
Ye'll scarce have reached your grim gray tower
Ere I have reached my home;
Plover, that thrills the solitude
With such an eerie cry,
Seek you your nest ere night-fall comes,
As my heart's nest seek I.
O light, light heart and heavy feet,
Patience a little while!
Keep the warm love-light in these eyes,
And on these lips the smile:
Out-speed the mist, the gathering mist
That follows o'er the moor!--
The darker grows the world without
The brighter seems that door.
O door, so close yet so far off;
O mist that nears and nears!
What, shall I faint in sight of home?
Blinded--but not with tears--
'T is but the mist, the cruel mist,
Which chills this heart of mine:
These eyes, too weak to see that light--
It has not ceased to shine.
A little further, further yet:
The white mist crawls and crawls;
It hems me around, it shuts me in
Its great sepulchral walls:
No earth--no sky--no path--no light--
A silence like the tomb:
O me, it is too soon to die--
And I was going home!
A little further, further yet:
My limbs are young,--my heart--
O heart, it is not only life
That feels it hard to part:
Poor lips, slow freezing into calm,
Numbed hands that helpless fall,
And, a mile off, warm lips, fond hands,
Waiting to welcome all!
I see the pictures in the room,
The figures moving round,
The very flicker of the fire
Upon the patterned ground:
O that I were the shepherd-dog
That guards their happy door!
Or even the silly household cat
That basks upon the floor!
O that I sat one minute's space
Where I have sat so long!
O that I heard one little word
Sweeter than angel's song!
A pause--and then the table fills,
The harmless mirth brims o'er;
While I--O can it be God's will?--
I die, outside the door.
My body fails--my desperate soul
Struggles before it go:
The bleak air's full of voices wild,
But not the voice I know;
Dim shapes come wandering through the dark:
With mocking, curious stares,
Faces long strange peer glimmering by--
But not one face of theirs.
Lost, lost, and such a little way
From that dear sheltering door!
Lost, lost, out of the loving arms
Left empty evermore!
His will be done. O, gate of heaven,
Fairer than earthly door,
Receive me! Everlasting arms,
Enfold me evermore!
And so, farewell * * * * *
What is this touch
Upon my closing eyes?
My name too, that I thought to hear
Next time in Paradise?
Warm arms--close lips--O, saved, saved, saved!
Across the deathly moor
Sought, found--and yonder through the night
Shineth the blessed door.
Scheme | ababcded cxxfcghg ijkfxlxl ximinoxhxxfpnqrq Stxtrjlf Suxuxvxv jwkwahxh xaxaxkxh xaxxaplp bhxhchxh xxmxexorh |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011111 110101 10010111 110101 11010101 110101 1011010 111111 110101111 010111 10010111 010111 110101101 010101 111011101 100101 11110101 010111 111111110 111111 1011010 111101 11111111 111111 11110101 100101 10111011 011101 110101001 1101001 01010101 010111 11111111 111101 11110111 101111 111010101 111111 11111111 111111 01010101 011101 111011110 1111 11111111 010101 11111111 011101 01010101 111111 11111101 111111 11110011 111101 00111111 101101 11010001 010101 010101010 010101 11100101 111101 11001011 110101 11111101 111111 11111101 10111 01010101 0101110 11111111 111101 11011101 100111 01111101 110111 111100101 1101001 101111001 111111 11010101 1111001 11110101 11010 111111110 101101 0110101 01110 011 1111 011101 11111111 11010 11111111 010101 11010101 1011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,017 |
Words | 560 |
Sentences | 28 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 16, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9 |
Lines Amount | 97 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 209 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 22, 2023
- 2:51 min read
- 116 Views
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"Lost In The Mist" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8032/lost-in-the-mist>.
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