Analysis of Hiding Place

Major Henry Livingston Jr. 1748 (Poughkeepsie, Province of New York) – 1828 (Poughkeepsie, New York)



Hail sov'reign love that first began,
The scheme to rescue fallen man;
Hail matchless, free, eternal grace,
That gave my soul a Hiding-Place.

Against the God that rules the sky,
I fought with hands uplifted high;
Despis'd the mentions of his grace,
Too proud to seek a Hiding-Place.

Enwrapt in thick Egyptian night,
And fond of darkness more than light,
Madly I ran the sinful race,
Secure without a Hiding-Place.

But thus the eternal counsel ran,
Almighty Love arrest that man;
I felt the arrows of distress,
And saw that I'd no Hiding-Place.

Indignant Justice stood in view,
To Sina's fiery mount I flew;
But Justice cry'd with frowning face,
This mountain is no Hiding-Place.

Ere long a Heav'nly voice I heard,
And Mercy's angel form appear'd,
She led me on with placid pace,
To Jesus as my Hiding-Place.

Should storms of sevenfold thunder roll,
And shake the globe from pole to pole,
No flaming bolt should daunt my face,
For Jesus is my Hiding-Place.

On him almighty vengeance fell,
That must have sunk the world to hell:
He bore it for the chosen race,
And thus became their Hiding-Place.

A few more rolling suns at most,
Shall land us on fair Canaan's coast,
Where we shall sing the song of grace,
And see our glorious Hiding-Place.


Scheme AABB CCBB DDBB AAXB EEBB XXBB FFBB GGBB HHBB
Poetic Form Quatrain  (78%)
Metre 1111101 01110101 1110101 11110101 01011101 11111001 01010111 11110101 1010101 01110111 10110101 01010101 110010101 01010111 11010101 01111101 01010101 11100111 11011101 11011101 1101111 0110101 11111101 11011101 11110101 01011111 11011111 11011101 11010101 11110111 11110101 01011101 01110111 1111111 11110111 0110100101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,220
Words 219
Sentences 10
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 107
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:08 min read
143

Major Henry Livingston Jr.

Henry Beekman Livingston Jr. has been proposed as being the uncredited author of the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, more popularly known (after its first line) as The Night Before Christmas. more…

All Major Henry Livingston Jr. poems | Major Henry Livingston Jr. Books

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