Analysis of The Worship of Nature
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
The harp at Nature's advent strung
Has never ceased to play;
The song the stars of morning sung
Has never died away.
And prayer is made, and praise is given,
By all things near and far;
The ocean looketh up to heaven,
And mirrors every star.
Its waves are kneeling on the strand,
As kneels the human knee,
Their white locks bowing to the sand,
The priesthood of the sea!
They pour their glittering treasures forth,
Their gifts of pearl they bring,
And all the listening hills of earth
Take up the song they sing.
The green earth sends its incense up
From many a mountain shrine;
From folded leaf and dewy cup
She pours her sacred wine.
The mists above the morning rills
Rise white as wings of prayer;
The altar-curtains of the hills
Are sunset's purple air.
The winds with hymns of praise are loud,
Or low with sobs of pain, --
The thunder-organ of the cloud,
The dropping tears of rain.
With drooping head and branches crossed
The twilight forest grieves,
Or speaks with tongues of Pentecost
From all its sunlit leaves.
The blue sky is the temple's arch,
Its transept earth and air,
The music of its starry march
The chorus of a prayer.
So Nature keeps the reverent frame
With which her years began,
And all her signs and voices shame
The prayerless heart of man.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG HIHI JKJK LMLM NJNJ OKOK PQPQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 0111011 110111 01011101 110101 011101110 111101 01011110 0101001 11110101 110101 11110101 010101 111100101 111111 010100111 110111 01111011 1100101 11010101 110101 01010101 111111 01010101 11101 01111111 111111 01010101 010111 11010101 01101 1111110 11111 01110101 11101 01011101 010101 110101001 110101 01010101 01111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,260 |
Words | 233 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 164 Views
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