Analysis of Art and Heart
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Though critics may bow to art, and I am its own true lover,
It is not art, but heart, which wins the wide world over.
Though smooth be the heartless prayer, no ear in Heaven will mind it,
And the finest phrase falls dead if there is no feeling behind it.
Though perfect the player's touch, little, if any, he sways us,
Unless we feel his heart throb through the music he plays us.
Though the poet may spend his life in skilfully rounding a measure,
Unless he writes from a full, warm heart he gives us little pleasure.
So it is not the speech which tells, but the impulse which goes with the saying;
And it is not the words of the prayer, but the yearning back of the praying.
It is not the artist's skill which into our soul comes stealing
With a joy that is almost pain, but it is the player's feeling.
And it is not the poet's song, though sweeter than sweet bells chiming,
Which thrills us through and through, but the heart which beats under the rhyming.
And therefore I say again, though I am art's own true lover,
That it is not art, but heart, which wins the wide world over.
Scheme | AABBCCAA DDDDDDAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111101111110 1111111101110 111010111010111 0010111111110011 101010110110111 01111111010111 101011110110010 0111101111111010 111101111010111010 011101101101011010 1110101101101110 101111111101010 011101011101111 1111011011110010 01110111111110 11111111101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,076 |
Words | 210 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 53 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 420 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 104 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 22, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 149 Views
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"Art and Heart" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10528/art-and-heart>.
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