Analysis of Evil

Marie E J Pitt 1869 (Bullumwaal, Victoria) – 1948 (Kew, Victoria)



NOT Beelzebub, but white archangel, I   
Turn the dim glass and shift the sands again,   
And touch the eyelids of the sons of men   
Lest they forget—forget and drowsy lie   
In Fate’s unfurrowed fallow till they die—           
As seed that quickens not for dawns that leap   
From out the dark of immemorial years,   
With kiss of wind and sun and wizard tears   
Of fugitive clouds to wake them from their sleep.   
With milestones I have set the crumbling sod           
Of human judgement that they stray not wide,   
Nor languish lost in labyrinths alway;   
And smile in pity when I hear them pray   
That Wrong’s rude whips from them be turned aside,   
Who call me Evil—not discerning God.


Scheme ABBAACDECFGHIGF
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 1111101 1011010101 010110111 1101010101 0111111 1111011111 1101101001 1111010101 11001111111 1111101001 1101011111 1101011 0101011111 1111111101 1111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 704
Words 119
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 511
Words per stanza (avg) 117
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
42

Marie E J Pitt

Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt was an Australian poet and socialist activist, also journalist and Unitarian. more…

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