Analysis of Penseroso
Emily Pauline Johnson 1861 – 1913
Soulless is all humanity to me
To-night. My keenest longing is to be
Alone, alone with God's grey earth that seems
Pulse of my pulse and consort of my dreams.
To-night my soul desires no fellowship,
Or fellow-being; crave I but to slip
Thro' space on space, till flesh no more can bind,
And I may quit for aye my fellow kind.
Let me but feel athwart my cheek the lash
Of whipping wind, but hear the torrent dash
Adown the mountain steep, 'twere more my choice
Than touch of human hand, than human voice.
Let me but wander on the shore night-stilled,
Drinking its darkness till my soul is filled;
The breathing of the salt sea on my hair,
My outstretched hands but grasping empty air.
Let me but feel the pulse of Nature's soul
Athrob on mine, let seas and thunders roll
O'er night and me; sands whirl; winds, waters beat;
For God's grey earth has no cheap counterfeit.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011010011 1111010111 0101111111 1111001111 1111010110 1101011111 1111111111 0111111101 1111011101 1101110101 101011111 1111011101 1111010111 1011011111 0101011111 1011110101 1111011101 111110101 10101111101 111111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 876 |
Words | 163 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 288 Views
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"Penseroso" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12603/penseroso>.
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