Analysis of Compensations
Alfred Noyes 1880 (Wolverhampton) – 1958 (Isle of Wight)
Not with a flash that rends the blue
Shall fall the avenging sword.
Gently as the evening dew
Descends the mighty Lord.
His dreadful balances are made
To move with moon and tide;
Yet shall not mercy be afraid
Nor justice be denied.
The dreams that seemed to waste away,
The kindliness forgot,
Were singing in your heart today
Although you knew them not.
The sun shall not forget his road,
Nor the high stars their rhyme,
The traveller with the heavier load
Has one less hill to climb.
And, though a darker shadow fall
On every struggling age,
How shall it be if, after all,
He share our pilgrimage?
The end we mourn is not the end.
The dust has nimble wings.
But truth and beauty have a friend
At the deep heart of things.
He will not speak? What friend belies
His love with idle breath?
We read it in each others' eyes,
And ask no more in death.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IXIX JKJK LMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 11011101 1100101 1010101 010101 11010011 111101 11110101 110101 01111101 0101 01001101 11111 01110111 101111 0100101001 111111 0101011 11001001 11111101 1110100 01111101 011101 11010101 101111 11111101 111101 11101101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 827 |
Words | 163 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 32 Views
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"Compensations" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1140/compensations>.
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