Analysis of Hymn 153
Isaac Watts 1674 (Southampton, Hampshire) – 1748 (Stoke Newington, Middlesex)
The distemper, folly, and madness of sin
Sin, like a venomous disease,
Infects our vital blood;
The only balm is sovereign grace,
And the physician, God.
Our beauty and our strength are fled,
And we draw near to death;
But Christ the Lord recalls the dead
With his almighty breath.
Madness by nature reigns within,
The passions burn and rage,
Till God's own Son, with skill divine,
The inward fire assuage.
[We lick the dust, we grasp the wind,
And solid good despise;
Such is the folly of the mind,
Till Jesus makes us wise.
We give our souls the wounds they feel,
We drink the pois'nous gall,
And rush with fury down to hell;
But Heav'n prevents the fall.]
[The man possessed among the tombs
Cuts his own flesh, and cries;
He foams and raves, till Jesus comes,
And the foul spirit flies.]
Scheme | A XXXX BCBC ADXD EFEF XGXG XFXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 00101001011 11010001 0110101 01011101 000101 1010010111 011111 1101101 110101 10110101 010101 11111101 0101001 11011101 010101 11010101 110111 111010111 11011 01110111 110101 01010101 111101 11011101 001101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 774 |
Words | 148 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 88 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 108 Views
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"Hymn 153" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19481/hymn-153>.
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