Analysis of Faith in God
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
HAVE faith in God. For whosoever lists
To calm conviction in these days of strife,
Will learn that in this steadfast stand exists
The scholarship severe of human life.
This face to face with doubt! I know how strong
His thews must be who fights and falls and bears,
By sleepless nights and vigils lone and long,
And many a woeful wraith of wrestling prayers.
Yet trust in Him! Not in an old man throned
With thunders on an everlasting cloud,
But in that awful Entity enzoned
By no wild wraths nor bitter homage loud.
When from the summit of some sudden steep
Of speculation you have strength to turn
To things too boundless for the broken sweep
Of finer comprehension, wait and learn
That God hath been “His own interpreter”
From first to last. So you will understand
The tribe who best succeed, when men most err,
To suck through fogs the fatness of the land.
One thing is surer than the autumn tints
We saw last week in yonder river bend—
That all our poor expression helps and hints,
However vaguely, to the solemn end
That God is truth; and if our dim ideal
Fall short of fact—so short that we must weep—
Why shape specific sorrows, though the real
Be not the song which erewhile made us sleep?
Remember, truth draws upward. This to us
Of steady happiness should be a cause
Beyond the differential calculus
Or Kant’s dull dogmas and mechanic laws.
A man is manliest when he wisely knows
How vain it is to halt and pule and pine;
Whilst under every mystery haply flows
The finest issue of a love divine.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EEEE FGFG XEXE HEHE IFIF JXJX KLKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 110110101 1101001111 111011101 010011101 1111111111 1111110101 1101010101 01001011101 1101101111 110110101 101101001 1111110101 1101011101 101011111 1111010101 110010101 1111110100 111111101 0111011111 111101101 1111010101 1111010101 11101010101 101010101 11110110101 1111111111 1101010101 110111111 0101110111 1101001101 010010100 111100101 011111101 1111110101 11010010011 0101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,491 |
Words | 279 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 133 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 21, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 92 Views
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"Faith in God" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17488/faith-in-god>.
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