Analysis of Vox Et Pr

Henry Timrod 1828 (Charleston) – 1867 (Columbia)



I've been haunted all night, I've been haunted all day,
By the ghost of a song, by the shade of a lay,
That with meaningless words and profusion of rhyme,
To a dreamy and musical rhythm keeps time.
A simple, but still a most magical strain,
Its dim monotones have bewildered my brain
With a specious and cunning appearance of thought,
I seem to be catching but never have caught.

I know it embodies some very sweet things,
And can almost divine the low burden it sings;
But again, and again, and still ever again,
It has died on my ear at the touch of my pen.
And so it keeps courting and shunning my quest,
As a bird that has just been aroused from her nest,
Too fond to depart, and too frightened to stay,
Now circles about you, now flutters away.

Oh! give me fit words for that exquisite song,
And thou couldst not, proud beauty! be obdurate long;
It would come like the voice of a saint from above,
And win thee to kindness, and melt thee to love.
Not gilded with fancy, nor frigid with art,
But simple as feeling, and warm as the heart,
It would murmur my name with so charming a tone,
As would almost persuade thee to wish it thine own.


Scheme AABBCCXX DDEEFFAA GGHHIIJJ
Poetic Form
Metre 111011111011 101101101101 111001001011 101001001011 01011011001 111101011 101001001011 11111011011 11101011011 01101011011 101001011001 111111101111 01111001011 101111101101 11101011011 11001111001 11111111001 011111011001 111101101101 01111001111 11011011011 11011001101 111011111001 11101111111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,127
Words 221
Sentences 9
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 295
Words per stanza (avg) 73
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:06 min read
125

Henry Timrod

Henry Timrod was an American poet, often called the poet laureate of the Confederacy. more…

All Henry Timrod poems | Henry Timrod Books

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