Analysis of By The Riverside
John Crowe Ransom 1888 (Pulaski) – 1974 (Gambier)
A GREAT green spread of meadow land,
(Must rest his weight on an ample base),
A secret water moving on,
A clean blue air for his breathing-space,
A pair of willows bending down
In double witness to his grace,
And on the rock his sinner sprawls
And looks the Strong One face to face.
The sinner's mocking tongue is dry,
Wonder is on that mighty jeerer,
He loves, and he never loved before,
He wants the glowing sky no nearer,
He likes the willows to be two,
He would not have the water clearer,
He thinks that God is perfect once:
Heaven, rejoice! a new God-fearer.
And now each quiet thing awakes
And dances madly, wavers, dips;
These are God's motions on the air,
His Pulse for the sinner's finger-tips,
His arrows shot across the blue,
His love-words dropping from his lips,
And who ever heard such whisperings,
Who ever saw such fellowships?
Scheme | XAXAXAXA BBXCDCXB AEXEDEAE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111 111111101 01010101 011111101 0111101 01010111 01011101 01011111 0110111 10111101 110110101 110101110 1101111 111101010 11111011 10010111 0111011 0101011 11110101 11101101 11010101 11110111 0110111 1101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 832 |
Words | 155 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 219 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 118 Views
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