Analysis of The Sermon Of St. Francis. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Fourth)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Up soared the lark into the air,
A shaft of song, a wingéd prayer,
As if a soul released from pain
Were flying back to heaven again.
St. Francis heard: it was to him
An emblem of the Seraphim;
The upward motion of the fire,
The light, the heat, the heart's desire.
Around Assisi's convent gate
The birds, God's poor who cannot wait,
From moor and mere and darksome wood
Come flocking for their dole of food.
'O brother birds,' St. Francis said,
'Ye come to me and ask for bread,
But not with bread alone to-day
Shall ye be fed and sent away.
'Ye shall be fed, ye happy birds,
With manna of celestial words;
Not mine, though mine they seem to be,
Not mine, though they be spoken through me.
'Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise
The great Creator in your lays;
He giveth you your plumes of down,
Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.
'He giveth you your wings to fly
And breathe a purer air on high,
And careth for you everywhere,
Who for yourselves so little care!'
With flutter of swift wings and songs
Together rose the feathered throngs,
And singing scattered far apart;
Deep peace was in St. Francis' heart.
He knew not if the brotherhood
His homily had understood;
He only knew that to one ear
The meaning of his words was clear.
Scheme | AAXX BBCC DDEX FFGG HHII JJKK LLAA MMNN EEXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 11010101 01110111 11010111 010111001 11011111 110101 010101010 010101010 01010101 01111101 1101011 11011111 11011101 11110111 11110111 11110101 11111101 11010101 11111111 111111011 11011111 01010011 11011111 11011111 11011111 01010111 011110 11011101 11011101 01010101 01010101 11101101 1111010 1100101 11011111 01011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,217 |
Words | 236 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 142 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Sermon Of St. Francis. (Birds Of Passage. Flight The Fourth)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18912/the-sermon-of-st.-francis.-%28birds-of-passage.-flight-the-fourth%29>.
Discuss this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 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