Analysis of We May Not Climb the Heavenly Steeps

John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)



We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps
For Him who fills Heaven's throne.

But to the contrite spirit yet
A present help is He;
And faith has yet its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.

The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again.

Through Him the first fond prayers are said,
Our lips of childhood frame;
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with His Name.

O Lord and Saviour of us all,
Whate'er our name or sign,
We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call,
And form our lives by Thine.

We faintly hear, we dimly see,
In differing phrase we pray;
But, dim or clear, we own in Thee
The Life, the Truth, the Way.


Scheme AXAX BCBC AXAX DEDE FGFG AHCH
Poetic Form Quatrain  (67%)
Metre 111101001 110111 01110101 1111101 11001101 010111 011111 01110 01011101 1110111 11101101 011101 11011111 101111 011101101 110111 1101111 1010111 11111111 0110111 11011101 0100111 11111101 010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 731
Words 150
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 95
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

45 sec read
69

John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. more…

All John Greenleaf Whittier poems | John Greenleaf Whittier Books

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