Analysis of Song V: Through the Trouble and Tangle

William Morris 1834 (Walthamstow) – 1896 (London)



Love is enough: through the trouble and tangle
From yesterday's dawning to yesterday's night
I sought through the vales where the prisoned winds wrangle,
Till, wearied and bleeding, at end of the light
I met him, and we wrestled, and great was my might.

O great was my joy, though no rest was around me,
Though mid wastes of the world were we twain all alone,
For methought that I conquered and he knelt and he crowned me,
And the driving rain ceased, and the wind ceased to moan,
And through clefts of the clouds her planet outshone.

O through clefts of the clouds 'gan the world to awaken,
And the bitter wind piped, and down drifted the rain,
And I was alone--and yet not forsaken,
For the grass was untrodden except by my pain:
With a Shadow of the Night had I wrestled in vain.

And the Shadow of the Night and not Love was departed;
I was sore, I was weary, yet Love lived to seek;
So I scaled the dark mountains, and wandered sad-hearted
Over wearier wastes, where e'en sunlight was bleak,
With no rest of the night for my soul waxen weak.

With no rest of the night; for I waked mid a story
Of a land wherein Love is the light and the lord,
Where my tale shall be heard, and my wounds gain a glory,
And my tears be a treasure to add to the hoard
Of pleasure laid up for his people's reward.

Ah, pleasure laid up! Haste then onward and listen,
For the wind of the waste has no music like this,
And not thus do the rocks of the wilderness glisten:
With the host of his faithful through sorrow and bliss
My Lord goeth forth now, and knows me for his.


Scheme ABABB CDCDD EFEFF GHGHH CICII EJEJX
Poetic Form
Metre 11011010010 110101101 111011010110 11001011101 111011001111 111111111011 111101011101 1111100110111 001011001111 01110101001 1111011011010 001011011001 01101011010 1011101111 101101111001 0011010111010 111111011111 1110110010110 1011111111 11110111111 1111011111010 101011101001 1111110111010 011101011101 11011111001 110111110010 101101111011 0111011010010 101111011001 1111101111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,537
Words 302
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 201
Words per stanza (avg) 50
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:31 min read
34

William Morris

William Morris, Mayor of Galway, 1527-28. more…

All William Morris poems | William Morris Books

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