Analysis of FAILURE
Theodosia Garrison 1874 – 1944
FAILURE
Theodosia Garrison
Oh, long and dark the stairs I trod
With stumbling feet to find my God.
Gaining a foothold bit by bit,
Then slipping back and losing it;
Never progressing, but striving still
With weakening grasp and fainting will;
Bleeding to climb to God, while He
Serenely smiled, un-noting me.
Then came a certain time when I
Loosened my hold and fell thereby.
Down to the lowest step my fall
As though I had not climbed at all.
And while I lay despairing there,
Listen, -- a footfall on the stair!
In the same path where I, dismayed,
Faltered and fell and lay afraid!
And, lo! When hope had ceased to be,
My God came down the stairs to me.
Scheme | XXAA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH DD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (25%) Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 10 1100 11010111 110011111 1001111 11010101 100101101 110010101 10111111 010011101 11010111 10110111 11010111 11111111 01110101 1001101 00111101 10010101 01111111 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 663 |
Words | 142 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 57 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 14 |
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"FAILURE" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/167442/failure>.
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