Analysis of As By Fire
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
Sometimes I feel so passionate a yearning
For spiritual perfection here below,
This vigorous frame, with healthful fervor burning,
Seems my determined foe,
So actively it makes a stern resistance,
So cruelly sometimes it wages war
Against a wholly spiritual existence
Which I am striving for.
It interrupts my soul's intense devotions;
Some hope it strangles, of divinest birth,
With a swift rush of violent emotions
Which link me to the earth.
It is as if two mortal foes contended
Within my bosom in a deadly strife,
One for the loftier aims for souls intended,
One for the earthly life.
And yet I know this very war within me,
Which brings out all my will-power and control,
This very conflict at the last shall win me
The loved and longed-for goal.
The very fire which seems sometimes so cruel
Is the white light that shows me my own strength.
A furnace, fed by the divinest fuel,
It may become at length.
Ah! when in the immortal ranks enlisted,
I sometimes wonder if we shall not find
That not by deeds, but by what we've resisted,
Our places are assigned.
Scheme | A B A B C D C D C E X E F G X G H I H I J K J K F L F L |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111100010 11000010101 110011101010 110101 11001101010 110011101 010101000010 111101 10111011 1111111 10111100010 111101 11111101010 0111000101 110100111010 110101 01111101011 11111110001 11010101111 010111 010101101110 1011111111 010110110 110111 11000101010 1011011111 11111111010 1010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,043 |
Words | 191 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 28 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 30 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 7 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
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"As By Fire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10531/as-by-fire>.
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