Analysis of The Wishing Bridge
AMONG the legends sung or said
Along our rocky shore,
The Wishing Bridge of Marblehead
May well be sung once more.
An hundred years ago (so ran
The old-time story) all
Good wishes said above its span
Would, soon or late, befall.
If pure and earnest, never failed
The prayers of man or maid
For him who on the deep sea sailed,
For her at home who stayed.
Once thither came two girls from school,
And wished in childish glee
And one would be a queen and rule,
And one the world would see.
Time passed; with change of hopes and fears,
And in the self-same place,
Two women, gray with middle years,
Stood, wondering, face to face.
With wakened memories, as they met,
They queried what had been
'A poor man's wife am I, and yet,'
Said one, 'I am a queen.
'My realm a little homestead is,
Where, lacking crown and throne,
I rule by loving services
And patient toil alone.'
The other said: 'The great world lies
Beyond me as it lay;
O'er love's and duty's boundaries
My feet may never stray.
'I see but common sights of home,
Its common sounds I hear,
My widowed mother's sick-bed room
Sufficeth for my sphere.
'I read to her some pleasant page
Of travel far and wide,
And in a dreamy pilgrimage
We wander side by side.
'And when, at last, she falls asleep,
My book becomes to me
A magic glass: my watch I keep,
But all the world I see.
'A farm-wife queen your place you fill,
While fancy's privilege
Is mine to walk the earth at will,
Thanks to the Wishing Bridge.'
'Nay, leave the legend for the truth,'
The other cried, 'and say
God gives the wishes of our youth,
But in His own best way!'
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KXKX XLXL XMXM XXXX XNON PHPH QOQX RMRM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (77%) |
Metre | 01010111 0110101 0101110 111111 11010111 011101 11010111 111101 11010101 011111 11110111 101111 1111111 010101 01110101 010111 11111101 000111 11011101 1100111 11100111 110111 01111101 111101 1101011 110101 11110100 010101 01010111 011111 10101100 111101 11110111 110111 11010111 1111 11101101 110101 00010100 110111 01111101 110111 01011111 110111 01111111 1110 11110111 110101 11010101 010101 110101101 101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,542 |
Words | 308 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 90 Views
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"The Wishing Bridge" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23225/the-wishing-bridge>.
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