Analysis of The Chorus at Vespers



Coming home
one cruel April afternoon,

the red sun hit
a robin’s red chest
through the red buds of an awakening tree’s
red crest
during the peak
of the golden hour.

Though frigid as any day in February
thanks to the bitter wind,
my eyes were blessed
with every bit of May’s glow.

The chorus was so loud that it seemed less like song
and more like chatter.

Who do they sing to?
These multiple denominations
of robins
and grackles,
red-winged black birds,
sparrows
and swallows?

Each congregation louder than their neighbors.

Do they sing to the Lord,
or to the setting sun,
or to me
or to each other?


Scheme XX XAXAXB CXAX XB XDDXXEE X XXCB
Poetic Form
Metre 101 1101001 0111 01011 10111101001 11 1001 101010 11011010100 110101 1101 11001111 010111111111 01110 11111 11000010 110 010 1111 10 010 1010101110 111101 110101 111 11110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 580
Words 110
Sentences 7
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 2, 6, 4, 2, 7, 1, 4
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 68
Words per stanza (avg) 16
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Submitted by ted_m on April 14, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
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