Analysis of Trust
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
The same old baffling questions! O my friend,
I cannot answer them. In vain I send
My soul into the dark, where never burn
The lamps of science, nor the natural light
Of Reason's sun and stars! I cannot learn
Their great and solemn meanings, nor discern
The awful secrets of the eyes which turn
Evermore on us through the day and night
With silent challenge and a dumb demand,
Proffering the riddles of the dread unknown,
Like the calm Sphinxes, with their eyes of stone,
Questioning the centuries from their veils of sand!
I have no answer for myself or thee,
Save that I learned beside my mother's knee;
'All is of God that is, and is to be;
And God is good.' Let this suffice us still,
Resting in childlike trust upon His will
Who moves to His great ends unthwarted by the ill.
Scheme | AABCBBBCDEEDFFFGGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110010111 1101010111 1101011101 01110101001 111011101 1101010101 0101010111 101110101 1101000101 10001010101 101111111 100010011111 111101111 1111011101 1111110111 0111110111 100110111 1111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 771 |
Words | 149 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 18 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 612 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 146 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 98 Views
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"Trust" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23272/trust>.
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