Analysis of Three Island Songs
Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall 1883 (Gunnersbury, London) – 1922 (Vancouver)
AFTER the wind in the wood,
Peace, and the night.
After the bond and the brood,
Flight.
After the height and the hush
Where the wild hawk swings,
Heart of the earth-loving thrush
Shaken with wings.
After the bloom and the leaf
Rain on the nest.
After the splendour and grief,
Rest.
After the hills and the far
Glories and gleams,
Cloud, and the dawn of a star,
And dreams.
------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
O, THE gray rocks of the islands and the hemlock green above them,
The foam beneath the wild rose bloom, the star above the shoal.
When I am old and weary I'll wake my heart to love them,
For the blue ways of the islands are wound about my soul.
[Page 66]
Here in the early even when the young gray dew is falling,
And the king-heron seeks his mate beyond the loneliest wild,
Still your heart in the twilight, and you'll hear the river calling
Through all her outmost islands to seek her lastborn child.
------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
I SAT among the green leaves, and heard the nuts falling,
The broad red butterflies were gold against the sun,
But in between the silence and the sweet birds calling
The nuts fell one by one.
Why should they fall and the year but half over ?
Why should sorrow seek me and I so young and kind ?
The leaf is on the bough and the dew is on the clover,
But the green nuts are falling in the wind.
O, I gave my lips away and all my soul behind them.
Why should trouble follow and the quick tears start ?
The little birds may love and fly with only God to mind them,
But the green nuts are falling on my heart.
Scheme | XAXABCBC DEDEFGFG HIHIX JKJK JLJL MNMN HOHO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001001 1001 1001001 1 1001001 10111 1101101 1011 1001001 1101 100101 1 1001001 1001 1001101 01 1 101110100011011 01010111010101 11110101111111 10111010110111 1 100101010111110 0011011101011 11100101101010 11011011011 1 1101011010110 01110010101 1001010001110 011111 11110011110 111011011101 01110100111010 1011110001 11111010111011 11101000111 010111011101111 1011110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,638 |
Words | 294 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 6, 4, 5, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 164 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 116 Views
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"Three Island Songs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26473/three-island-songs>.
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