Analysis of I Walk'd the Other Day
Henry Vaughan 1621 (Brecknockshire) – 1695
1 I walk'd the other day, to spend my hour,
2 Into a field,
3 Where I sometimes had seen the soil to yield
4 A gallant flow'r;
5 But winter now had ruffled all the bow'r
6 And curious store
7 I knew there heretofore.
8 Yet I, whose search lov'd not to peep and peer
9 I' th' face of things,
10 Thought with my self, there might be other springs
11 Besides this here,
12 Which, like cold friends, sees us but once a year;
13 And so the flow'r
14 Might have some other bow'r.
15 Then taking up what I could nearest spy,
16 I digg'd about
17 That place where I had seen him to grow out;
18 And by and by
19 I saw the warm recluse alone to lie,
20 Where fresh and green
21 He liv'd of us unseen.
22 Many a question intricate and rare
23 Did I there strow;
24 But all I could extort was, that he now
25 Did there repair
26 Such losses as befell him in this air,
27 And would ere long
28 Come forth most fair and young.
29 This past, I threw the clothes quite o'er his head;
30 And stung with fear
31 Of my own frailty dropp'd down many a tear
32 Upon his bed;
33 Then sighing whisper'd, "happy are the dead!
34 What peace doth now
35 Rock him asleep below!"
36 And yet, how few believe such doctrine springs
37 From a poor root,
38 Which all the winter sleeps here under foot,
39 And hath no wings
40 To raise it to the truth and light of things;
41 But is still trod
42 By ev'ry wand'ring clod.
43 O Thou! whose spirit did at first inflame
44 And warm the dead,
45 And by a sacred incubation fed
46 With life this frame,
47 Which once had neither being, form, nor name;
48 Grant I may so
49 Thy steps track here below,
50 That in these masques and shadows I may see
51 Thy sacred way;
52 And by those hid ascents climb to that day,
53 Which breaks from Thee,
54 Who art in all things, though invisibly!
55 Shew me thy peace,
56 Thy mercy, love, and ease,
57 And from this care, where dreams and sorrows reign,
58 Lead me above,
59 Where light, joy, leisure, and true comforts move
60 Without all pain;
61 There, hid in thee, shew me his life again,
62 At whose dumb urn
63 Thus all the year I mourn.
Scheme | XAABBCC DEEXDBB FGGFFHH IJKIIXX LDILLKJ EXXEEXA MLLMMJJ NOONXXX PXXPXXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111110 0101 1101110111 01011 11011101011 01001 11101 1111111101 111111 1111111101 0111 1111111101 01011 1111011 1101111101 1101 1111111111 0101 1101010111 1101 111101 1001010001 1111 1111011111 1101 1101011011 0111 111101 11110111011 0111 11110111001 0111 1101010101 1111 110101 0111011101 1011 1101011101 0111 1111010111 1111 11111 1111011101 0101 010100101 1111 1111010111 1111 111101 101101111 1101 011111111 1111 1101111 1111 110101 0111110101 1101 1111001101 0111 1101111101 1111 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,419 |
Words | 438 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 176 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 90 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:15 min read
- 109 Views
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"I Walk'd the Other Day" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18427/i-walk%27d-the-other-day>.
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