Analysis of The Thought
William Brighty Rands 1823 (Chelsea, Middlesex) – 1882 (East Dulwich, London)
Into the skies, one summer's day,
I sent a little Thought away;
Up to where, in the blue round,
The sun sat shining without sound.
Then my Thought came back to me.—
Little Thought, what did you see
In the regions whence you come?
And when I spoke, my Thought was dumb.
But she breathed of what was there,
In the pure bright upper air;
And, because my Thought so shone,
I knew she had been shone upon.
Next, by night a Thought I sent
Up into the firmament;
When the eager stars were out,
And the still moon shone about.
And my Thought went past the moon
In between the stars, but soon
Held her breath and durst not stir,
For the fear that covered her;
Then she thought, in this demur:
'Dare I look beneath the shade,
Into where the worlds are made;
Where the suns and stars are wrought?
Shall I meet another Thought?
'Will that other Thought have wings?
Shall I meet strange, heavenly things?
Thought of Thoughts, and Light of Lights,
Breath of Breaths, and Night of Nights?'
Then my Thought began to hark
In the illuminated dark,
Till the silence, over, under,
Made her heart beat more than thunder.
And my Thought, came trembling back,
But with something on her track,
And with something at her side;
Nor till she has lived and died,
Lived and died, and lived again,
Will that awful thing seem plain.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEXX XAFF GGHHH IIJJ KKLL MMHH NNOOXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011101 11010101 1110011 01110011 1111111 1011111 0010111 01111111 1111111 0011101 0011111 11111101 1110111 10101 1010101 0011101 0111101 0010111 1010111 1011100 1110101 1110101 0110111 1010111 1110101 1110111 11111001 1110111 1110111 1110111 0001001 10101010 10111110 01111001 1110101 0110101 1111101 1010101 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,305 |
Words | 246 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 6 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 112 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:13 min read
- 115 Views
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"The Thought" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39228/the-thought>.
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