Analysis of Miracles

Conrad Potter Aiken 1889 (Savannah, Georgia) – 1973 (Savannah, Georgia)



Twilight is spacious, near things in it seem far,
And distant things seem near.
Now in the green west hangs a yellow star.
And now across old waters you may hear
The profound gloom of bells among still trees,
Like a rolling of huge boulders beneath seas.

Silent as though in evening contemplation
Weaves the bat under the gathering stars.
Silent as dew, we seek new incarnation,
Meditate new avatars.
In a clear dusk like this
Mary climbed up the hill to seek her son,
To lower him down from the cross, and kiss
The mauve wounds, every one.

Men with wings
In the dusk walked softly after her.
She did not see them, but may have felt
The winnowed air around her stir;
She did not see them, but may have known
Why her son's body was light as a little stone.
She may have guessed that other hands were there
Moving the watchful air.

Now, unless persuaded by searching music
Which suddenly opens the portals of the mind,
We guess no angels,
And are contented to be blind.
Let us blow silver horns in the twilight,
And lift our hearts to the yellow star in the green,
To find perhaps, if, while the dew is rising,
Clear things may not be seen.


Scheme AXAXBB CDCDECEC XFXFGGHH XIXIXJXJ
Poetic Form
Metre 1110110111 010111 1001110101 0101110111 0011110111 10101110011 1011010010 1011001001 10111110110 10110 001111 1011011101 1101110101 0111001 111 001110100 111111111 0110101 111111111 101101110101 1111110101 100101 10101011010 110010010101 11110 01010111 111101001 0110110101001 11011101110 111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,146
Words 216
Sentences 12
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 224
Words per stanza (avg) 54
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 28, 2023

1:05 min read
97

Conrad Potter Aiken

Conrad Potter Aiken was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author born in Savannah Georgia whose work includes poetry short stories novels and an autobiography more…

All Conrad Potter Aiken poems | Conrad Potter Aiken Books

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