Analysis of A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break
Christina Georgina Rossetti 1830 (London) – 1894 (London)
I will accept thy will to do and be,
Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,
Thy will at least to love, that burns within
And thirsteth after Me:
So will I render fruitful, blessing still,
The germs and small beginnings in thy heart,
Because thy will cleaves to the better part.—
Alas, I cannot will.
Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet I receive
The inner unseen longings of the soul,
I guide them turning towards Me; I control
And charm hearts till they grieve:
If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass,
Though thou but wish indeed to choose My love;
For I have power in earth and heaven above.—
I cannot wish, alas!
What, neither choose nor wish to choose? and yet
I still must strive to win thee and constrain:
For thee I hung upon the cross in pain,
How then can I forget?
If thou as yet dost neither love, nor hate,
Nor choose, nor wish,—resign thyself, be still
Till I infuse love, hatred, longing, will.—
I do not deprecate.
Scheme | ABBACDDC EFFEGHHG IJJIKCCK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111101 1100010011 1111111101 01101 1111010101 0101010011 0111110101 011101 1111111101 0100110101 11110011101 011111 11010111111 1111011111 111100101001 110101 1101111101 1111111001 1111010101 111101 1111110111 111101111 1101110101 11110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 922 |
Words | 181 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 238 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 58 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 191 Views
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"A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5693/a-bruised-reed-shall-he-not-break>.
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