Analysis of Be Kind When You Can
Eliza Cook 1818 (London Road, Southwark) – 1889 (Wimbledon)
Be kind when you can, though the kindness be little,
'Tis small letters make up philosophers' scrolls;
The crystal of Happiness, vivid and brittle,
Can seldom be cut into very large bowls.
'Tis atoms that dwell in the measureless mountain,
'Tis moments that sum up the century's flight;
'Tis but drops that unite in Niagara's fountain,
'Tis rays, single rays, from the harvest-sun light.
Stone by stone builds the temple that rises in glory,
Inch by inch grows the child till maturity's prime;
The jewels so famous in bright, Eastern story
Have been nursed, tint by tint, in the blossom of Time.
'Tis grains make the desert-sheet, trackless and spreading;
'Tis but petals that deck every blossom-twinned spray;
There are leaves - only leaves - where the forest is shedding
Its gloom till the density shuts out the day.
A word or a glance which we give 'without thinking',
May shadow or lighten some sensitive breast;
And the draught from the well-spring is wine in the drinking,
If quaffed from the brim that Affection has blest.
Then be kind when you can in the smallest of duties,
Don't wait for the larger expressions of Love;
For the heart depends less for its joys and its beauties
On the flight of the Eagle than coo of the Dove.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH GIGI JKJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111111010110 11101101001 010110010010 11011011011 1101100110 11011101001 11111001010 11101101011 1111010110010 111101111 010110011010 111111001011 11101011010 1110111001011 1111011010110 11101001101 011011110110 1111011001 0011011110010 11101101011 1111110010110 11101001011 1010111110110 101101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,220 |
Words | 219 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 162 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 138 Views
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"Be Kind When You Can" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10192/be-kind-when-you-can>.
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