Analysis of Matthew Arnold On hearing him read his Poems in Boston
Katharine Lee Bates 1859 (Falmouth) – 1929 (Wellesley)
A stranger, schooled to gentle arts,
He stept before the curious throng;
His path into our waiting hearts
Already paved by song.
Full well we knew his choristers,
Whose plaintive voices haunt our rest,
Those sable-vested harbingers
Of melancholy guest.
We smiled on him for love of these,
With eyes that swift grew dim to scan
Beneath the veil of courteous ease
The faith-forsaken man.
To his wan gaze the weary shows
And fashions of our vain estate,
Our shallow pain and false repose,
Our barren love and hate,
Are shadows in a land of graves,
Where creeds, the bubbles of a dream,
Flash each and fade, like melting waves
Upon a moonlight stream.
Yet loyal to his own despair,
Erect beneath a darkened sky,
He deems the austerest truth more fair
Than any gracious lie;
And stands, heroic, patient, sage,
With hopeless hands that bind the sheaf,
Claiming God's work with His wage,
The bard of unbelief.
Scheme | ABAB ACXC DEDE FGFG HIHI JKJK LMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 01011101 110101001 110110101 010111 111111 110101101 11010100 11001 11111111 11111111 010111001 010101 11110101 010110101 101010101 1010101 1100111 11010101 11011101 01011 11011101 01010101 1101111 110101 01010101 11011101 1011111 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,028 |
Words | 160 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 110 Views
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"Matthew Arnold On hearing him read his Poems in Boston" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24873/matthew-arnold-on-hearing-him-read-his-poems-in-boston>.
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