Analysis of Hazel Blossoms
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
THE SUMMER warmth has left the sky,
The summer songs have died away;
And, withered, in the footpaths lie
The fallen leaves, but yesterday
With ruby and with topaz gay.
The grass is browning on the hills;
No pale, belated flowers recall
The astral fringes of the rills,
And drearily the dead vines fall,
Frost-blackened, from the roadside wall.
Yet through the gray and sombre wood,
Against the dusk of fir and pine,
Last of their floral sisterhood,
The hazel’s yellow blossoms shine,
The tawny gold of Afric’s mine!
Small beauty hath my unsung flower,
For spring to own or summer hail;
But, in the season’s saddest hour,
To skies that weep and winds that wail
Its glad surprisals never fail.
O days grown cold! O life grown old
No rose of June may bloom again;
But, like the hazel’s twisted gold,
Through early frost and latter rain
Shall hints of summer-time remain.
And as within the hazel’s bough
A gift of mystic virtue dwells,
That points to golden ores below,
And in dry desert places tells
Where flow unseen the cool, sweet wells,
So, in the wise Diviner’s hand,
Be mine the hazel’s grateful part
To feel, beneath a thirsty land,
The living waters thrill and start,
The beating of the rivulet’s heart!
Sufficeth me the gift to light
With latest bloom the dark, cold days;
To call some hidden spring to sight
That, in these dry and dusty ways,
Shall sing its pleasant song of praise.
O Love! the hazel-wand may fail,
But thou canst lend the surer spell,
That, passing over Baca’s vale,
Repeats the old-time miracle,
And makes the desert-land a well.
Scheme | ABABB CDCDD EFEFF GHGHH IXIJJ XKXKK LMLMM NONOO HPHXP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 01011101 01011101 0100011 0101110 1100111 01110101 11010101 01010101 010111 1101011 1101011 01011101 11110100 0110101 0101111 110110110 11111101 100101010 11110111 111101 11111111 11111101 1101101 11010101 11110101 0101011 01110101 11110101 00110101 11010111 100111 1101101 11010101 01010101 0101011 110111 11010111 11110111 10110101 11110111 11010111 11110101 1101011 01011100 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,545 |
Words | 278 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 116 Views
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"Hazel Blossoms" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22913/hazel-blossoms>.
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