Analysis of The Heart of a Boy
Katharine Tynan 1861 (Ireland) – 1931
To Mrs. Guy Wyndham
The heart of a boy is full of light,
Naked of self, quite pure and clean,
No shadows lurk in it: it is bright
Where God Himself hath been.
I looked in a boy's heart and saw
How its desire was white desire,
Burning upward, as winds might draw
The flame of a candle higher.
What was the heart's desire that burned
Like a white candle stirred in a breeze?
Power or glory or honour earned?
Love that is more than these?
The heart of a boy has but one goal.
The flying Danger smiles as she flies,
Makes her own of him, heart and soul,
With the lure of her lovely eyes.
The boy's heart now is set on a star,
A sword for the weak against the strong,
A young knight riding forth to the War
Who dies to right the wrong.
Scheme | X AXAX BCBC DEDE FGFG XHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110 011011111 10111101 11101111 110111 11001101 1101011010 10101111 01101010 110101011 101101001 10110111 111111 011011111 010101111 10111101 10110101 011111101 011010101 011101101 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 718 |
Words | 150 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 108 Views
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