Analysis of Robert Parkes
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
High travelling winds by royal hill
Their awful anthem sing,
And songs exalted flow and fill
The caverns of the spring.
To-night across a wild wet plain
A shadow sobs and strays;
The trees are whispering in the rain
Of long departed days.
I cannot say what forest saith —
Its words are strange to me:
I only know that in its breath
Are tones that used to be.
Yea, in these deep dim solitudes
I hear a sound I know —
The voice that lived in Penrith woods
Twelve weary years ago.
And while the hymn of other years
Is on a listening land,
The Angel of the Past appears
And leads me by the hand;
And takes me over moaning wave,
And tracts of sleepless change,
To set me by a lonely grave
Within a lonely range.
The halo of the beautiful
Is round the quiet spot;
The grass is deep and green and cool,
Where sound of life is not.
Here in this lovely lap of bloom,
The grace of glen and glade,
That tender days and nights illume,
My gentle friend was laid.
I do not mark the shell that lies
Beneath the touching flowers;
I only see the radiant eyes
Of other scenes and hours.
I only turn, by grief inspired,
Like some forsaken thing,
To look upon a life retired
As hushed Bethesda’s spring.
The glory of unblemished days
Is on the silent mound —
The light of years, too pure for praise;
I kneel on holy ground!
Here is the clay of one whose mind
Was fairer than the dew,
The sweetest nature of his kind
I haply ever knew.
This Christian, walking on the white
Clear paths apart from strife,
Kept far from all the heat and light
That fills his father’s life.
The clamour and exceeding flame
Were never in his days:
A higher object was his aim
Than thrones of shine and praise.
Ah! like an English April psalm,
That floats by sea and strand,
He passed away into the calm
Of the Eternal Land.
The chair he filled is set aside
Upon his father’s floor;
In morning hours, at eventide,
His step is heard no more.
No more his face the forest knows;
His voice is of the past;
But from his life of beauty flows
A radiance that will last.
Yea, from the hours that heard his speech
High shining mem’ries give
That fine example which will teach
Our children how to live.
Here, kneeling in the body, far
From grave of flower and dew,
My friend beyond the path of star,
I say these words to you.
Though you were as a fleeting flame
Across my road austere,
The memory of your face became
A thing for ever dear.
I never have forgotten yet
The Christian’s gentle touch;
And, since the time when last we met,
You know I’ve suffered much.
I feel that I have given pain
By certain words and deeds,
But stricken here with Sorrow’s rain,
My contrite spirit bleeds.
For your sole sake I rue the blow,
But this assurance send:
I smote, in noon, the public foe,
But not the private friend.
I know that once I wronged your sire,
But since that awful day
My soul has passed through blood and fire,
My head is very grey.
Here let me pause! From years like yours
There ever flows and thrives
The splendid blessing which endures
Beyond our little lives.
From lonely lands across the wave
Is sent to-night by me
This rose of reverence for the grave
Beside the mountain lea.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF DGXG HIHI JKJK XLXL XMFM NONO XBXB DPDP QRQR STST UDUD XIXI XVIV WXWX YXYX ZRZR U1 U1 2 3 2 3 C4 C4 G5 G5 6 7 6 7 8 X8 X JFJF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (92%) |
Metre | 110011101 110101 01010101 010101 11010111 01101 011100001 110101 11011101 111111 11011011 111111 101111 110111 0111011 110101 01011101 1101001 01010101 011101 01110101 011101 11110101 010101 01010100 110101 01110101 111111 10110111 011101 1101011 110111 11110111 0101010 110101001 1101010 110111010 110101 11010101 1111 01010101 110101 01111111 111101 11011111 110101 01010111 11101 11010101 110111 11110101 111101 0100101 010011 01010111 111101 11110101 111101 11010101 100101 01111101 011101 0101011 111111 11110101 111101 11111101 0100111 110101111 11011 11010111 1010111 11000101 1111001 11010111 111111 11010101 011101 010011101 011101 11010101 010101 01011111 111101 11111101 110101 11011101 101101 11111101 110101 11010101 110101 111111110 111101 111111010 111101 11111111 110101 01010101 0110101 11010101 111111 111100101 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,058 |
Words | 602 |
Sentences | 28 |
Stanzas | 26 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 104 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:00 min read
- 111 Views
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"Robert Parkes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17556/robert-parkes>.
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