Analysis of Incense
Vachel Lindsay 1879 (Springfield) – 1931 (Springfield)
Think not that incense-smoke has had its day.
My friends, the incense-time has but begun.
Creed upon creed, cult upon cult shall bloom,
Shrine after shrine grow gray beneath the sun.
And mountain-boulders in our aged West
Shall guard the graves of hermits truth-endowed:
And there the scholar from the Chinese hills
Shall do deep honor, with his wise head bowed.
And on our old, old plains some muddy stream,
Dark as the Ganges, shall, like that strange tide —
(Whispering mystery to half the earth) —
Gather the praying millions to its side,
And flow past halls with statues in white stone
To saints unborn to-day, whose lives of grace
Shall make one shining, universal church
Where all Faiths kneel, as brothers, in one place.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC XDXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1110111111 1100111101 1011101111 1101110101 0101001011 1101110101 0101010011 1111011111 01101111101 1101011111 1001001101 1001010111 011111011 1111111111 111100101 1111110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 740 |
Words | 128 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 81 Views
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"Incense" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37301/incense>.
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