Analysis of The Retreat
Henry Vaughan 1621 (Brecknockshire) – 1695
1 Happy those early days, when I
2 Shin'd in my angel-infancy!
3 Before I understood this place
4 Appointed for my second race,
5 Or taught my soul to fancy ought
6 But a white, celestial thought;
7 When yet I had not walk'd above
8 A mile or two from my first love,
9 And looking back (at that short space)
10 Could see a glimpse of his bright face;
11 When on some gilded cloud or flow'r
12 My gazing soul would dwell an hour,
13 And in those weaker glories spy
14 Some shadows of eternity;
15 Before I taught my tongue to wound
16 My conscience with a sinful sound,
17 Or had the black art to dispense,
18 A sev'ral sin to ev'ry sense,
19 But felt through all this fleshly dress
20 Bright shoots of everlastingness.
21 O how I long to travel back,
22 And tread again that ancient track!
23 That I might once more reach that plain,
24 Where first I left my glorious train,
25 From whence th' enlighten'd spirit sees
26 That shady city of palm trees.
27 But ah! my soul with too much stay
28 Is drunk, and staggers in the way.
29 Some men a forward motion love,
30 But I by backward steps would move;
31 And when this dust falls to the urn,
32 In that state I came, return.
Scheme | ABCCDDEECCXXABFFGGXB HHIIJJKKEXLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10110111 10110100 0110111 01011101 11111101 1010101 11111101 01111111 01011111 11011111 111101111 110111110 00110101 1110100 01111111 11010101 11011101 011111 1111111 1111 11111101 01011101 11111111 111111001 1111010101 11010111 11111111 11010001 11010101 11110111 01111101 0111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,237 |
Words | 239 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 12 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 451 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 162 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:13 min read
- 88 Views
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"The Retreat" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18455/the-retreat>.
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