Analysis of Simple Trust

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



Still, still, without ceasing,
I feel it increasing,
This fervour of holy desire;
And often exclaim,
Let me die in the flame
Of a love that can never expire!

Had I words to explain
What she must sustain
Who dies to the world and its ways;
How joy and affright,
Distress and delight,
Alternately chequer her days:

Thou, sweetly severe!
I would make thee appear,
In all thou art pleased to award.
Not more in the sweet
Than the bitter I meet
My tender and merciful Lord.

This faith, in the dark,
Pursuing its mark,
Through many sharp trials of love,
Is the sorrowful waste
That is to be passed
On the way to the Canaan above.


Scheme AAXBBX CCDEED FFEEEE GGHEEH
Poetic Form
Metre 110110 111010 11110010 01001 111001 101111001 111101 11101 11101011 1101 01001 1000101 11001 111101 01111101 11001 101011 11001001 11001 01011 11011011 101001 11111 101101001
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 608
Words 119
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 122
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
59

William Cowper

William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. more…

All William Cowper poems | William Cowper Books

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