Analysis of To Lydia Maria Child
ON READING HER POEM IN 'THE STANDARD.'
The sweet spring day is glad with music,
But through it sounds a sadder strain;
The worthiest of our narrowing circle
Sings Loring's dirges o'er again.
O woman greatly loved! I join thee
In tender memories of our friend;
With thee across the awful spaces
The greeting of a soul I send!
What cheer hath he? How is it with him?
Where lingers he this weary while?
Over what pleasant fields of Heaven
Dawns the sweet sunrise of his smile?
Does he not know our feet are treading
The earth hard down on Slavery's grave?
That, in our crowning exultations,
We miss the charm his presence gave?
Why on this spring air comes no whisper
From him to tell us all is well?
Why to our flower-time comes no token
Of lily and of asphodel?
I feel the unutterable longing,
Thy hunger of the heart is mine;
I reach and grope for hands in darkness,
My ear grows sharp for voice or sign.
Still on the lips of all we question
The finger of God's silence lies;
Will the lost hands in ours be folded?
Will the shut eyelids ever rise?
O friend! no proof beyond this yearning,
This outreach of our hearts, we need;
God will not mock the hope He giveth,
No love He prompts shall vainly plead.
Then let us stretch our hands in darkness,
And call our loved ones o'er and o'er;
Some day their arms shall close about us,
And the old voices speak once more.
No dreary splendors wait our coming
Where rapt ghost sits from ghost apart;
Homeward we go to Heaven's thanksgiving,
The harvest-gathering of the heart.
Scheme | X XXAX XBCB XDED FGCG HXEA FIJI EKXK FLXL JHJX FMFM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1100100010 011111110 11110101 010011010010 1111001 110101111 0101001101 110101010 01010111 111111111 11011101 101101110 1011111 1111101110 0111111 1010101 11011101 111111110 11111111 11101011110 110011 110110 11010111 110111010 11111111 110111110 01011101 1011010110 1011101 111101110 11110111 111101110 11111101 1111101010 01101110010 111111011 00110111 110111010 11111101 101111010 010100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,484 |
Words | 285 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 108 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 118 Views
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"To Lydia Maria Child" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23254/to-lydia-maria-child>.
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