Analysis of The Wind-Child
Enid Derham 1882 (Hawthorn) – 1941
MY FOLK’S the wind-folk, it’s there I belong,
I tread the earth below them, and the earth does me wrong,
Before my spirit knew itself, before this frame unfurled,
I was a little wandering breeze and blew about the world.
The winds of the morning that breathe against my cheek
Are kisses of comfort from a love too great to speak;
The whimpering airs that cry by night and never find their rest
Are sobbing to be taken in and soothed upon my breast.
The storm through the mountains, the tempest from the sea,
That ride their cloudy horses and take no thought of me,
They are my noble brothers that hasten to the fight,
They fill my heart with singing, they fill my eyes with light,
They’re a shield upon my shoulder, a sword by my side,
A battle cry for weariness,—and a plume of pride.
But sometimes in the moonlight, when the moon is in the west,
Young and strange and virginal and dropping to her rest,
There comes a wind from out the south, a little chill and thin,
And draws me from the human warmth that houses it within.
My soul streams forth to follow a soul that lures it on,
The sleepy flesh calls kin to it, and murmurs to be gone;
Across the dreaming dewy flowers and through the shadowy trees
The sweet insistent whisper comes, and I am ill at ease.
How, they have not told me, and where, I do not know,
But the wind-folk is my folk, and some day I’ll go.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGDDHHIJKKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111101 1101011001111 01110101011101 110101001010101 011010110111 1101101011111 010011111010111 11011100010111 011010010101 1111010011111 1111010110101 1111110111111 1010111001111 0101110000111 1010011011001 1010100010101 11011101010101 01110101110101 1111110011111 01011111010111 0101010100101001 01010101011111 111111011111 101111101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,362 |
Words | 264 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 24 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 44 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,064 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 261 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 100 Views
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