Analysis of Altiora Peto
George Essex Evans 1863 (London) – 1909 (Toowoomba)
O for a vision of the perfect light
To shame the splendour of the morning star!
O for a breath from out the Infinite
Where the great heart of Being throbs afar!
O for that sound, too fine for mortal ears,
The music of the silence of the spheres!
The Masters fathomed not that song sublime,
Tho’ oft on straining ear and brain o’erwrought,
And heart grown faint at heights too sheer to climb,
The roll of some immortal wave of thought
Swept by and left, adown its troubled verge,
The lingering echoes of its mighty surge.
To each there came the passion and the fire,
The breadth of vision and the sudden light,
And for a moment on an earthly lyre
Quivered a tremor of the Infinite;
Yet to each poet of that deep-browed throng
’Twas but the shadow of Immortal Song.
’Twas but the presage of th’ Omniscient Soul
That moves and throbs thro’ all this wondrous plan,
Unseen, unheard, unknown: that is the Whole,
Yet stirs in atoms and the heart of Man;
That thro’ all phase of change, and form, and name
Remains and works eternally the same.
That seems to whisper us:—“All life is one,
Reborn in death it blossoms from decay,
The same when first the fury of the sun
Belched forth his satellites of fiery spray,
The same when he and all his planet train
Shall plough the Ether, cold—to glow again!
“Whither, O whither? Still th’ eternal cry,
That from the ages rolled and yet shall roll!
Who shall declare to man his destiny—
A unit in the Cosmos of the Soul—
A spirit-germ, storm-tossed in doubt and strife,
That feebly dreams of larger light and life?”
Systems and stars their courses onward sweep,
And creeds and nations flower and fade away.
Still Nature worketh out her purpose deep—
New life, new thought for that of yesterday.
Unto the utmost confines of her range
One law abideth of unchanging change.
Around us dwells the secret no man reads!
About us swells the music none can hear!
Behind us lie the ruins of the creeds!
Before us loom the mystery and the fear!
To Love and Hope our souls are clinging fast,
What giveth these, perchance gives Truth at last!
Scheme | ABCBDDEAEXFF XAXCGG HIHIJJ KLKLXX XHXHMM NLNLOO PXPXQQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010011 110110101 1101110100 1011110101 1111111101 0101010101 010111101 111101011 0111111111 0111010111 110111101 01001011101 11110100010 0111000101 0101011101 101010100 1111011111 110110101 110101110101 1101111101 0101011101 1101000111 1111110101 0101010001 1111011111 1101110101 0111010101 1111011001 0111011101 1101011101 101101110101 1101010111 1101111100 0100010101 0101110101 1101110101 1001110101 01010100101 110110101 111111110 10011101 11110101 0111010111 0111010111 0111010101 01110100001 11011011101 1101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,061 |
Words | 381 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 231 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:54 min read
- 101 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Altiora Peto" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14951/altiora-peto>.
Discuss this George Essex Evans 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