Analysis of The Choir Invisible
George Eliot 1819 (Nuneaton, Warwickshire) – 1880 (Chelsea, London)
Oh, may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge men's search
To vaster issues. So to live is heaven:
To make undying music in the world,
Breathing a beauteous order that controls
With growing sway the growing life of man.
So we inherit that sweet purity
For which we struggled, failed, and agonized
With widening retrospect that bred despair.
Rebellious flesh that would not be subdued,
A vicious parent shaming still its child,
Poor anxious penitence, is quick dissolved;
Its discords, quenched by meeting harmonies,
Die in the large and charitable air,
And all our rarer, better, truer self
That sobbed religiously in yearning song,
That watched to ease the burden of the world,
Laboriously tracing what must be,
And what may yet be better, -- saw within
A worthier image for the sanctuary,
And shaped it forth before the multitude,
Divinely human, raising worship so
To higher reverence more mixed with love, --
That better self shall live till human Time
Shall fold its eyelids, and the human sky
Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb
Unread forever. This is life to come, --
Which martyred men have made more glorious
For us who strive to follow. May I reach
That purest heaven, -- be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense!
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLDMNOPQRNFSJDTDOUVWXYZ1 2 KDVD3 4 AJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110100100 1101011101 0111011101 010110100 011101001 1100011111 0101110111 0111010111 1110111110 1101010001 100110101 1101010111 1101011100 111101010 1100101101 0101111101 0101010111 11011101 111110100 1001010001 01101010101 1101000101 1111010101 0100010111 0111110101 01001010100 011101010 0101010101 1101001111 1101111101 111100101 1101010101 0101011111 1101111100 1111110111 1101011101 0111011100 110010111 010111110 1011010101 0001010101 11110100100 110101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,765 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 43 |
Lines Amount | 43 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,400 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 307 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 12, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 202 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Choir Invisible" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14938/the-choir-invisible>.
Discuss this George Eliot poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In