Analysis of To -----
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
LINES WRITTEN AFTER A SUMMER DAY'S EXCURSION.
Fair Nature's priestesses! to whom,
In hieroglyph of bud and bloom,
Her mysteries are told;
Who, wise in lore of wood and mead,
The seasons' pictured scrolls can read,
In lessons manifold!
Thanks for the courtesy, and gay
Good-humor, which on Washing Day
Our ill-timed visit bore;
Thanks for your graceful oars, which broke
The morning dreams of Artichoke,
Along his wooded shore!
Varied as varying Nature's ways,
Sprites of the river, woodland fays,
Or mountain nymphs, ye seem;
Free-limbed Dianas on the green,
Loch Katrine's Ellen, or Undine,
Upon your favorite stream.
The forms of which the poets told,
The fair benignities of old,
Were doubtless such as you;
What more than Artichoke the rill
Of Helicon? Than Pipe-stave hill
Arcadia's mountain-view?
No sweeter bowers the bee delayed,
In wild Hymettus' scented shade,
Than those you dwell among;
Snow-flowered azaleas, intertwined
With roses, over banks inclined
With trembling harebells hung!
A charmed life unknown to death,
Immortal freshness Nature hath;
Her fabled fount and glen
Are now and here: Dodona's shrine
Still murmurs in the wind-swept pine,--
All is that e'er hath been.
The Beauty which old Greece or Rome
Sung, painted, wrought, lies close at home;
We need but eye and ear
In all our daily walks to trace
The outlines of incarnate grace,
The hymns of gods to hear!
Scheme | X AABXXB CCDEED FFGHHG BBIJJI KKLMML XXXNNX OOPQQP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100101010 110111 0011101 010011 11011101 01010111 01010 11010001 11011101 1011101 11110111 0101110 011101 101100101 1101011 110111 111101 111011 0111001 01110101 01111 010111 1111001 1101111 1101 110100101 011101 111101 110010001 11010101 110011 0110111 01010101 010101 110111 11000111 1111011 01011111 11011111 111101 011010111 0110101 011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,351 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 43 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 137 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 88 Views
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"To -----" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23237/to------>.
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