Analysis of Lines Written in Kensington Gardens
Matthew Arnold 1822 (Laleham) – 1888 (Liverpool)
In this lone, open glade I lie,
Screen'd by deep boughs on either hand;
And at its end, to stay the eye,
Those black-crown'd, red-boled pine-trees stand!
Birds here make song, each bird has his,
Across the girdling city's hum.
How green under the boughs it is!
How thick the tremulous sheep-cries come!
Sometimes a child will cross the glade
To take his nurse his broken toy;
Sometimes a thrush flit overhead
Deep in her unknown day's employ.
Here at my feet what wonders pass,
What endless, active life is here!
What blowing daisies, fragrant grass!
An air-stirr'd forest, fresh and clear.
Scarce fresher is the mountain-sod
Where the tired angler lies, stretch'd out,
And, eased of basket and of rod,
Counts his day's spoil, the spotted trout.
In the huge world, which roars hard by,
Be others happy if they can!
But in my helpless cradle I
Was breathed on by the rural Pan.
I, on men's impious uproar hurl'd,
Think often, as I hear them rave,
That peace has left the upper world
And now keeps only in the grave.
Yet here is peace for ever new!
When I who watch them am away,
Still all things in this glade go through
The changes of their quiet day.
Then to their happy rest they pass!
The flowers upclose, the birds are fed,
The night comes down upon the grass,
The child sleeps warmly in his bed.
Calm soul of all things! make it mine
To feel, amid the city's jar,
That there abides a peace of thine,
Man did not make, and cannot mar.
The will to neither strive nor cry,
The power to feel with others give!
Calm, calm me more! nor let me die
Before I have begun to live.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XEFE GXGX HIHI AJAJ KLKL MNMN GFGF OPOP AXAX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (82%) |
Metre | 01110111 11111101 01111101 11111111 11111111 0101101 11100111 110100111 01011101 11111101 01011101 10001101 11111101 11010111 11010101 11110101 11010101 101010111 01110011 11110101 00111111 11010111 10110101 11110101 11101011 11011111 11110101 01110001 11111101 11111101 11101111 01011101 11110111 01010111 01110101 01110011 11111111 11010101 11010111 11110101 01110111 010111101 11111111 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,539 |
Words | 296 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 195 Views
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"Lines Written in Kensington Gardens" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/27267/lines-written-in-kensington-gardens>.
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