Analysis of Look Home
Robert Southwell 1561 (Horsham St Faith) – 1595
Retired thoughts enjoy their own delights,
As beauty doth in self-beholding eye ;
Man's mind a mirror is of heavenly sights,
A brief wherein all marvels summed lie,
Of fairest forms and sweetest shapes the store,
Most graceful all, yet thought may grace them more.
The mind a creature is, yet can create,
To nature's patterns adding higher skill ;
Of finest works with better could the state
If force of wit had equal power of will.
Device of man in working hath no end,
What thought can think, another thought can mend.
Man's soul of endless beauty image is,
Drawn by the work of endless skill and might ;
This skillful might gave many sparks of bliss
And, to discern this bliss, a native light ;
To frame God's image as his worths required
His might, his skill, his word and will conspired.
All that he had his image should present,
All that it should present it could afford,
To that he could afford his will was bent,
His will was followed with performing word.
Let this suffice, by this conceive the rest,
He should, he could, he would, he did, the best.
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF XGXGHH XXXHII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011011101 1101010101 11010111001 010111011 1101010101 1101111111 0101011101 1101010101 1101110101 11111101011 0111010111 1111010111 1111010101 1101110101 1101110111 0101110101 11110111010 11111101010 1111110110 1111101101 1111011111 1111010101 1101110101 1111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,044 |
Words | 192 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 207 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 100 Views
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"Look Home" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31924/look-home>.
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