Analysis of To God the Father
Katherine Mansfield 1888 (Wellington) – 1923 (Fontainebleau, Île-de-France)
To the little, pitiful God I make my prayer,
The God with the long grey beard
And flowing robe fastened with a hempen girdle
Who sits nodding and muttering on the all-too-big throne
of Heaven.
What a long, long time, dear God, since you set the
stars in their places,
Girded the earth with the sea, and invented the day and
night.
And longer the time since you looked through the blue
window of Heaven
To see your children at play in a garden....
Now we are all stronger than you and wiser and more
arrogant,
In swift procession we pass you by.
"Who is that marionette nodding and muttering
On the all-too-big throne of Heaven?
Come down from your place, Grey Beard,
We have had enough of your play-acting!"
It is centuries since I believed in you,
But to-day my need of you has come back.
I want no rose-coloured future,
No books of learning, no protestations and denials--
I am sick of this ugly scramble,
I am tired of being pulled about--
O God, I want to sit on your knees
On the all-too-big throne of Heaven,
And fall asleep with my hands tangled in your grey
beard.
Scheme | xabxcxxxxdccxxxeCae dxxxbxxCxa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101010011111 0110111 010110101010 11100100101111 110 10111111110 10110 1011010010010 1 01001111101 10110 11110110010 1111101101001 100 010101111 1111100100 101111110 1111111 1110111110 11100110101 1111111111 11111010 111101100010 111111010 1110110101 111111111 101111110 010111110011 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,085 |
Words | 203 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 19, 10 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 416 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 100 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 09, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 56 Views
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