Analysis of A Child in the Garden
Henry Van Dyke 1852 (Germantown, Pennsylvania) – 1933 (Princeton, New Jersey)
When to the garden of untroubled thought
I came of late, and saw the open door,
And wished again to enter, and explore
The sweet, wild ways with stainless bloom inwrought,
And bowers of innocence with beauty fraught,
It seemed some purer voice must speak before
I dared to tread that garden loved of yore,
That Eden lost unknown and found unsought.
Then just within the gate I saw a child, --
A stranger-child, yet to my heart most dear;
He held his hands to me, and softly smiled
With eyes that knew no shade of sin or fear:
"Come in," he said, "and play awhile with me;"
"I am the little child you used to be."
Scheme | ABBAABBA CDCDEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Petrarchan sonnet |
Metre | 1101010101 1111010101 0101110001 011111011 01011001101 1111011101 1111110111 110101011 1101011101 0101111111 1111110101 1111111111 1011010111 1101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 607 |
Words | 122 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 235 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 67 Views
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"A Child in the Garden" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18296/a-child-in-the-garden>.
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