Analysis of Inscription
Francis Thompson 1859 (City of Preston, Lancashire) – 1907 (London)
When the last stir of bubbling melodies
Broke as my chants sank underneath the wave
Of dulcitude, but sank again to rise
Where man's embaying mind those waters lave,
(For music hath its Oceanides
Flexuously floating through their parent seas,
And such are these),
I saw a vision--or may it be
The effluence of a dear desired reality?
I saw two spirits high, -
Two spirits, dim within the silver smoke
Which is for ever woke
By snowing lights of fountained Poesy.
Two shapes they were familiar as love;
They were those souls, whereof
One twines from finest gracious daily things,
Strong, constant, noticeless, as are heart-strings
The golden cage wherein this song-bird sings;
And the other's sun gives hue to all my flowers,
Which else pale flowers of Tartarus would grow,
Where ghosts watch ghosts of blooms in ghostly bowers; -
For we do know
The hidden player by his harmonies,
And by my thoughts I know what still hands thrill the keys.
And to these twain--as from the mind's abysses
All thoughts draw toward the awakening heart's sweet kisses,
With proffer of their wreathen fantasies, -
Even so to these
I saw how many brought their garlands fair,
Whether of song, or simple love, they were, -
Of simple love, that makes best garlands fair.
But one I marked who lingered still behind,
As for such souls no seemly gift had he:
He was not of their strain,
Nor worthy of so bright beings to entertain,
Nor fit compeer for such high company.
Yet was he, surely, born to them in mind,
Their youngest nursling of the spirit's kind.
Last stole this one,
With timid glance, of watching eyes adread,
And dropped his frightened flower when all were gone;
And where the frail flower fell, it withered.
But yet methought those high souls smiled thereon;
As when a child, upstraining at your knees
Some fond and fancied nothings, says, 'I give you these!'
Scheme | ABXBAAACCXDDAXBEEEFGFGAA AXAAHXHICJJCIIXIKXKAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (27%) |
Metre | 10111100100 111110101 11110111 11111101 110111 11011101 0111 110101111 010010101010 111101 1101010101 111101 1101111 111001011 10111 1111010101 11011111 0101011111 001011111110 111101111 11111101010 1111 0101011100 011111111101 011111011 11101001001110 110111100 10111 111101111 1011110110 110111111 1111110101 111111111 111111 11011110101 111111100 1111011101 110110101 1111 110111011 01110101101 0101101110 111111101 11011111 110101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,812 |
Words | 328 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 24, 21 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 729 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 163 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:39 min read
- 80 Views
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"Inscription" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13916/inscription>.
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