Analysis of The Gift to Sing
James Weldon Johnson 1871 (Jacksonville) – 1938 (Wiscasset)
Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day —
I softly sing.
And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow's somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.
I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.
Scheme | XABBA XACCA XADDA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011011 010010111 11110101 11011101 1101 01011101 1011101 11010011 11010101 0101 111100101 1110111 11111111 10111101 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 469 |
Words | 94 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 28 sec read
- 315 Views
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"The Gift to Sing" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20735/the-gift-to-sing>.
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