Analysis of The Legend Of The Crossbill. (From The German Of Julius Mosen)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
On the cross the dying Saviour
Heavenward lifts his eyelids calm,
Feels, but scarcely feels, a trembling
In his pierced and bleeding palm.
And by all the world forsaken,
Sees he how with zealous care
At the ruthless nail of iron
A little bird is striving there.
Stained with blood and never tiring,
With its beak it doth not cease,
From the cross 't would free the Saviour,
Its Creator's Son release.
And the Saviour speaks in mildness:
'Blest be thou of all the good!
Bear, as token of this moment,
Marks of blood and holy rood!'
And that bird is called the crossbill;
Covered all with blood so clear,
In the groves of pine it singeth
Songs, like legends, strange to hear.
Scheme | ABCB XAXA CDAD DXXX XAXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (60%) Etheree (40%) |
Metre | 1010101 11111 111010100 0110101 01101010 1111101 10101110 01011101 11101010 1111111 10111101 11101 001101 1111101 11101110 1110101 0111101 1011111 0011111 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 681 |
Words | 126 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 105 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 159 Views
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"The Legend Of The Crossbill. (From The German Of Julius Mosen)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18884/the-legend-of-the-crossbill.-%28from-the-german-of-julius-mosen%29>.
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