Analysis of Safi
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
Strong pinions bore Safi, the dreamer,
Through the dazzle and whirl of a race,
And the earth, raying up in confusion,
Like a sea thundered under his face!
And the earth, raying up in confusion,
Passed flying and flying afar,
Till it dropped like a moon into silence,
And waned from a moon to a star.
Was it light, was it shadow he followed,
That he swept through those desperate tracts,
With his hair beating back on his shoulders
Like the tops of the wind-hackled flax?
“I come,” murmured Safi, the dreamer,
“I come, but thou fliest before:
But thy way hath the breath of the honey,
And the scent of the myrrh evermore!”
His eyes were the eyes of a watcher
Held on by luxurious faith,
And his lips were the lips of a longer
Amazed with the beauty of Death.
“For ever and ever,” he murmured,
“My love, for the sweetness with thee,
Do I follow thy footsteps,” said Safi,
“Like the wind on a measureless sea.”
And, fronting the furthermost spaces,
He kept through the distances dim,
Till the days, and the years, and the cycles
Were lost and forgotten by him.
When he came to the silver star-portals,
The Queen of that wonderful place
Looked forth from her towers resplendent,
And started, and dreamed in his face.
And one said, “This is Safi the Only,
Who lived in a planet below,
And housed him apart from his fellows,
A million of ages ago.
“He erred, if he suffers, to clutch at
High lights from the wood and the street;
Not caring to see how his brothers
Were content with the things at their feet.”
But she whispered, “Ah, turn to the stranger!
He looks like a lord of the land;
For his eyes are the eyes of an angel,
And the thought on his forehead is grand!
“Is there never a peace for the sinner
Whose sin is in this, that he mars
The light of his worship of Beauty,
Forgetting the flower for the stars?”
“Behold him, my Sister immortal,
And doubt that he knoweth his shame,
Who raves in the shadow for sweetness,
And gloats on the ghost of a flame!
“His sin is his sin, if he suffers,
Who wilfully straitened the truth;
And his doom is his doom, if he follows
A lie without sorrow or ruth.”
And another from uttermost verges
Ran out with a terrible voice—
“Let him go—it is well that he goeth,
Though he break with the lot of his choice!”
“I come,” murmured Safi, the dreamer,
“I come, but thou fliest before:
But thy way hath the breath of the honey,
And the scent of the myrrh evermore.”
“My Queen,” said the first of the Voices,
“He hunteth a perilous wraith,
Arrayed with voluptuous fancies
And ringed with tyrannical faith.
“Wound up in the heart of his error
He must sweep through the silences dire,
Like one in the dark of a desert
Allured by fallacious fire.”
And she faltered, and asked, like a doubter,
“When he hangs on those Spaces sublime
With the Terror that knoweth no limit,
And holdeth no record of Time—
“Forgotten of God and the demons—
Will he keep to his fancy amain?
Can he live for that horrible chaos
Of flame and perpetual rain?”
But an answer as soft as a prayer
Fell down from a high, hidden land,
And the words were the words of a language
Which none but the gods understand.
Scheme | abCbCdxd xxex AFGF ahax xgxg ijkj kbxb glml xnen aopo aqgq prxr esms xtht AFGF ihxh axxa auxu xcxx xoxo |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010 101001101 001110010 101101011 001110010 11001001 1111010110 01101101 111111110 11111101 1111011110 10110111 11101010 1111101 1111011010 00110110 110011010 11101001 0110011010 01101011 110010110 11101011 11101111 1011011 0100110 11101001 1010010010 01001011 1111010110 01111001 111010010 01001011 011111010 11001001 011011110 01011001 111110111 11101001 110111110 010101111 1110111010 11101101 1111011110 001111011 1110011010 11101111 011110110 010010101 011110010 0111111 11001110 01101101 111111110 1100101 0111111110 01011011 00101110 11101001 111111111 111101111 11101010 1111101 1111011010 00110110 111011010 1101001 011010010 01101001 110011110 111101001 110011010 01101010 0110011010 111111001 101011110 0110111 010110010 11111101 1111110010 11001001 111011101 11101101 0010011010 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,130 |
Words | 599 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 20 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 120 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:59 min read
- 42 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Safi" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17558/safi>.
Discuss this Henry Kendall 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