Analysis of Monday In Whitsun-Week
John Keble 1792 (Fairford) – 1866 (Bournemouth)
Since all that is not Heaven must fade,
Light be the hand of Ruin laid
Upon the home I love:
With lulling spell let soft Decay
Steal on, and spare the giant sway,
The crash of tower and grove.
Far opening down some woodland deep
In their own quiet glade should sleep
The relics dear to thought,
And wild-flower wreaths from side to side
Their waving tracery hang, to hide
What ruthless Time has wrought.
Such are the visions green and sweet
That o'er the wistful fancy fleet
In Asia's sea-like plain,
Where slowly, round his isles of sand,
Euphrates through the lonely land
Winds toward the pearly main.
Slumber is there, but not of rest;
There her forlorn and weary nest
The famished hawk has found,
The wild dog howls at fall of night,
The serpent's rustling coils affright
The traveller on his round.
What shapeless form, half lost on high,
Half seen against the evening sky,
Seems like a ghost to glide,
And watch, from Babel's crumbling heap,
Where in her shadow, fast asleep,
Lies fallen imperial Pride?
With half-closed eye a lion there
Is basking in his noontide lair,
Or prowls in twilight gloom.
The golden city's king he seems,
Such as in old prophetic dreams
Sprang from rough ocean's womb.
But where are now his eagle wings,
That sheltered erst a thousand kings,
Hiding the glorious sky
From half the nations, till they own
No holier name, no mightier throne?
That vision is gone by.
Quenched is the golden statue's ray,
The breath of heaven has blown away
What toiling earth had piled,
Scattering wise heart and crafty hand,
As breezes strew on ocean's sand
The fabrics of a child.
Divided thence through every age
Thy rebels, Lord, their warfare wage,
And hoarse and jarring all
Mount up their heaven-assailing cries
To Thy bright watchmen in the skies
From Babel's shattered wall.
Thrice only since, with blended might
The nations on that haughty height
Have met to scale the Heaven:
Thrice only might a Seraph's look
A moment's shade of sadness brook -
Such power to guilt was given.
Now the fierce bear and leopard keen
Are perished as they ne'er had been,
Oblivion is their home:
Ambition's boldest dream and last
Must melt before the clarion blast
That sounds the dirge of Rome.
Heroes and kings, obey the charm,
Withdraw the proud high-reaching arm,
There is an oath on high:
That ne'er on brow of mortal birth
Shall blend again the crowns of earth,
Nor in according cry
Her many voices mingling own
One tyrant Lord, one idol throne:
But to His triumphs soon
HE shall descend, who rules above,
And the pure language of His love,
All tongues of men shall tune.
Nor let Ambition heartless mourn;
When Babel's very ruins burn,
Her high desires may breathe; -
O'ercome thyself, and thou mayst share
With Christ His Father's throne, and wear
The world's imperial wreath.
Scheme | AABCCX DDEFFE GGHIIH JJKLAK MMFDDF NNOPPO QQMRRM CCSIIS TTUVVU LLWXXW XXYZZY 1 1 M2 2 M RR3 BB3 XXXNNX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111011 11011101 010111 11011101 11010101 0111001 11001111 01110111 010111 011011111 1101111 110111 11010101 110010101 010111 11011111 01010101 1010101 10111111 10010101 010111 01111111 0101011 0100111 11011111 11010101 110111 01111001 1001101 11001001 11110101 1100111 11011 01010111 11010101 111101 11111101 11010101 1001001 11010111 1100111001 110111 1101011 011101101 110111 100110101 11011101 010101 010111001 1101111 010101 111100101 11110001 11101 11011101 01011101 1111010 1101011 01011101 11011110 10110101 11011111 0100111 110101 110101001 110111 10010101 01011101 111111 11111101 11010111 100101 010101001 11011101 111101 11011101 00110111 111111 11010101 1110101 0101011 110111 11110101 0101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,767 |
Words | 493 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 84 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 157 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:33 min read
- 79 Views
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"Monday In Whitsun-Week" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23590/monday-in-whitsun-week>.
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