Analysis of The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage
Sir Walter Raleigh 1552 (Hayes Barton, East Budleigh, Devon) – 1618 (London)
Give me my scallop shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope's true gage,
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.
Blood must be my body's balmer,
No other balm will there be given,
Whilst my soul, like a white palmer,
Travels to the land of heaven;
Over the silver mountains,
Where spring the nectar fountains;
And there I'll kiss
The bowl of bliss,
And drink my eternal fill
On every milken hill.
My soul will be a-dry before,
But after it will ne'er thirst more;
And by the happy blissful way
More peaceful pilgrims I shall see,
That have shook off their gowns of clay,
And go apparelled fresh like me.
I'll bring them first
To slake their thirst,
And then to taste those nectar suckets,
At the clear wells
Where sweetness dwells,
Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets.
And when our bottles and all we
Are fill'd with immortality,
Then the holy paths we'll travel,
Strew'd with rubies thick as gravel,
Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors,
High walls of coral, and pearl bowers.
From thence to heaven's bribeless hall
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No conscience molten into gold,
Nor forg'd accusers bought and sold,
No cause deferr'd, nor vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the king's attorney,
Who pleads for all without degrees,
And he hath angels, but no fees.
When the grand twelve million jury
Of our sins and sinful fury,
'Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads his death, and then we live.
Be thou my speaker, taintless pleader,
Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder,
Thou movest salvation even for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer's palms.
And this is my eternal plea
To him that made heaven, earth, and sea,
Seeing my flesh must die so soon,
And want a head to dine next noon,
Just at the stroke when my veins start and spread,
Set on my soul an everlasting head.
Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,
To tread those blest paths which before I writ.
Scheme | ABACDEFCFCGGHHIIJJKLKLMMGNNOLLPPQRSSTTLLUULLVWFFXYLLZZ1 1 2 2 |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101110 11111101 111101010 1101010 11110111 01111100 11111010 110111110 11110110 10101110 1001010 1101010 0111 0111 0110101 1100101 11110101 11011111 01010101 11010111 11111111 011111 1111 1111 01111101 1011 1101 111101010 011010011 1110100 10101110 11101110 101101001 111100110 1111011 11010101 11010011 11010101 110111110 111101010 11110101 01110111 10111010 110101010 11011101 11110111 1111011 11011 110101011 1101101 01110101 111110101 10111111 01011111 1101111101 111110101 1111010101 1111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,904 |
Words | 353 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 58 |
Lines Amount | 58 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,524 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 351 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 195 Views
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"The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35461/the-passionate-man%27s-pilgrimage>.
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