Analysis of Wedding-Hymn

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



Thou God, whose high, eternal Love
 Is the only blue sky of our life,
Clear all the Heaven that bends above
 The life-road of this man and wife.

May these two lives be but one note
 In the world's strange-sounding harmony,
Whose sacred music e'er shall float
 Through every discord up to Thee.

As when from separate stars two beams
 Unite to form one tender ray:
As when two sweet but shadowy dreams
 Explain each other in the day:

So may these two dear hearts one light
 Emit, and each interpret each.
Let an angel come and dwell to-night
 In this dear double-heart, and teach!


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 11110101 1010111101 110101101 01111101 11111111 001110100 110101011 110010111 11110111 1111101 111111001 01110001 11111111 01010101 111010111 01110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 571
Words 107
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

32 sec read
124

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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