Analysis of Mattins
George Herbert 1593 (Montgomery) – 1633 (Bemerton)
I cannot ope mine eyes,
But thou art ready there to catch
My morning-soul and sacrifice:
Then we must needs for that day make a match.
My God, what is a heart?
Silver, or gold, or precious stone,
Or star, or rainbow, or a part
Of all these things or all of them in one?
My God, what is a heart?
That thou should'st it so eye, and woo,
Pouring upon it all thy art,
As if that thou hadst nothing else to do?
Indeed man's whole estate
Amounts (and richly) to serve thee:
He did not heav'n and earth create,
Yet studies them, not him by whom they be.
Teach me thy love to know;
That this new light, which now I see,
May both the work and workman show:
Then by a sun-beam I will climb to thee.
Scheme | xaxa Bxbx Bcbc dede fefe |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Etheree (35%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 110111 11110111 1101010 1111111101 111101 10111101 1111101 1111111101 111101 111111101 10011111 1111110111 011101 01010111 11110101 1101111111 111111 11111111 11010101 1101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 692 |
Words | 142 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 132 Views
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"Mattins" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15365/mattins>.
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