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 Views
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"We May Not Climb the Heavenly Steeps" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23278/we-may-not-climb-the-heavenly-steeps>.
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