Analysis of Still Falls the Rain
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell 1887 (Scarborough) – 1964 (Weedon Lois)
Still falls the Rain---
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss---
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.
Still falls the Rain
With a sound like the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer-beat
In the Potter's Field, and the sound of the impious feet
On the Tomb:
Still falls the Rain
In the Field of Blood where the small hopes breed and the human brain
Nurtures its greed, that worm with the brow of Cain.
Still falls the Rain
At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross.
Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us---
On Dives and on Lazarus:
Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one.
Still falls the Rain---
Still falls the Blood from the Starved Man's wounded Side:
He bears in His Heart all wounds,---those of the light that died,
The last faint spark
In the self-murdered heart, the wounds of the sad uncomprehending dark,
The wounds of the baited bear---
The blind and weeping bear whom the keepers beat
On his helpless flesh... the tears of the hunted hare.
Still falls the Rain---
Then--- O Ile leape up to my God: who pulles me doune---
See, see where Christ's blood streames in the firmament:
It flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree
Deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart
That holds the fires of the world,---dark-smirched with pain
As Caesar's laurel crown.
Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man
Was once a child who among beasts has lain---
"Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee."
Scheme | Abxb Acc xA aa Abddx Aeeffgcg Aach xax xah |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101 11011111101 11011100101 0101 1101 10110110111110101 00101001100101 101 1101 001111011100101 10111110111 1101 101101110101 1111111111011 1101100 100101001111 1101 11011011101 1101111110111 0111 0011010110111 0110101 01010110101 111010110101 1101 111111111111 111111001 11101110101 110101011 110101011111 110101 110111110111 1101101111 111111110011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,512 |
Words | 290 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 3, 2, 2, 5, 8, 4, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 129 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 322 Views
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"Still Falls the Rain" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/7421/still-falls-the-rain>.
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