Analysis of The Secret



SHE passes in her beauty bright  
 Amongst the mean, amongst the gay,  
And all are brighter for the sight,  
 And bless her as she goes her way.  

And now a gleam of pity pours,  
 And now a spark of spirit flies,  
Uncounted, from the unlock’d stores  
 Of her rich lips and precious eyes.  

And all men look, and all men smile,  
 But no man looks on her as I:   
They mark her for a little while,  
 But I will watch her till I die.  

And if I wonder now and then  
 Why this so strange a thing should be—  
That she be seen by wiser men  
 And only duly lov’d by me:  

I only wait a little longer,  
 And watch her radiance in the room;  
Here making light a little stronger,  
 And there obliterating gloom,  

(Like one who, in a tangled way,  
 Watches the broken sun fall through,  
Turning to gold the faded spray,  
 And making diamonds of dew).  

Until at last, as my heart burns,  
 She gathers all her scatter’d light,  
And undivided radiance turns  
 Upon me like a sea of light.  

And then I know they see in part  
 That which God lets me worship whole:
He gives them glances of her heart,  
 But me, the sunshine of her soul.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ BKBK LALA MNMN
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11000101 01010101 01110101 01011101 01011101 01011101 101011 10110101 01110111 11111011 11010101 11110111 01110101 11110111 11111101 01010111 110101010 010100001 110101010 0101001 11100101 10010111 10110101 0101011 01111111 1101011 00101001 01110111 01111101 11111101 11110101 1101101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,136
Words 214
Sentences 7
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 102
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:04 min read
63

William Cosmo Monkhouse

William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and critic. more…

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    Quiz

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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A Line break
    B A turn
    C Dithyramb
    D Enjambment