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
319

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess. She never married but became passionately attached to Russian painter Pavel Tchelitchew, and her home was always open to London's poetic circle, to whom she was generous and helpful. Sitwell published poetry continuously from 1913, some of it abstract and set to music. With her dramatic style and exotic costumes, she was sometimes labelled a poseur, but her work was praised for its solid technique and painstaking craftsmanship. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal. more…

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