Analysis of A Thrush Before Dawn
Alice Meynell 1847 (London) – 1922
A voice peals in this end of night
A phrase of notes resembling stars,
Single and spiritual notes of light.
What call they at my window-bars?
The South, the past, the day to be,
An ancient infelicity.
Darkling, deliberate, what sings
This wonderful one, alone, at peace?
What wilder things than song, what things
Sweeter than youth, clearer than Greece,
Dearer than Italy, untold
Delight, and freshness centuries old?
And first first-loves, a multitude,
The exaltation of their pain;
Ancestral childhood long renewed;
And midnights of invisible rain;
And gardens, gardens, night and day,
Gardens and childhood all the way.
What Middle Ages passionate,
O passionless voice! What distant bells
Lodged in the hills, what palace state
Illyrian! For it speaks, it tells,
Without desire, without dismay,
Some morrow and some yesterday.
All-natural things! But more-Whence came
This yet remoter mystery?
How do these starry notes proclaim
A graver still divinity?
This hope, this sanctity of fear?
O innocent throat! O human ear!
Scheme | ABABCA DEDEFF GHGHII XJXJII KCKCXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 01101111 011101001 1001000111 11111101 01010111 1101 1010011 110010111 11011111 10111011 10110001 010101001 0111010 01111 0101101 01101001 01010101 1001101 11010100 1111101 10011101 010011111 010100101 1100110 110011111 111100 11110101 01010100 11110011 110011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,017 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 9 Views
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