Analysis of Saint Elizabeth Of Bohemia
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1826 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) – 1887 (Shortlands, London)
I NEVER lay me down to sleep at night
But in my heart I sing that little song:
The angels hear it as, a pitying throng,
They touch my burning lids with fingers bright
As moonbeams, pale, impalpable, and light:
And when my daily pious tasks are done,
And all my patient prayers said one by one,
God hears it. Seems it sinful in His sight
That round my slow burnt-offering of quenched will
One quivering human sigh creeps wind-like still?
That when my orisons celestial fail
Rises one note of natural human wail?
Dear lord, spouse, hero, martyr, saint! erelong,
I trust, God will forgive my singing that poor song.
A YEAR ago I bade my little son
Bear upon pilgrimage a heavy load
Of alms; he cried, half-fainting on the road,
'Mother, O mother, would the day were done!'
Him I reproved with tears, and said, 'Go on!
Nor pause nor murmur till thy task be o'er.'--
Would not God say to me the same, and more?
I will not sing that song. Thou, dearest one,
Husband--no, brother!--stretch thy steadfast hand
And let mine grasp it. Now, I also stand,
My woman weakness nerved to strength like thine;
We'll quaff life's aloe-cup as if 't were wine
Each to the other; journeying on apart,
Till at heaven's golden doors we two leap heart to heart.
Scheme | ABBAACCADDEEBB CFFCXXXCGGHHII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111111 1011111101 01011101001 1111011101 111101 0111010111 0111011111 1111110011 11111100111 11001011111 11110101 10111100101 111101011 111101110111 0101111101 1011000101 1111110101 1011010101 111110111 11110111110 1111110101 1111111101 101101111 0111111101 1101011111 1111111101 11010100101 1110101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,250 |
Words | 234 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 14 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 474 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 113 Views
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"Saint Elizabeth Of Bohemia" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8058/saint-elizabeth-of-bohemia>.
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