Analysis of Child-Songs
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Still linger in our noon of time
And on our Saxon tongue
The echoes of the home-born hymns
The Aryan mothers sung.
And childhood had its litanies
In every age and clime;
The earliest cradles of the race
Were rocked to poet's rhyme.
Nor sky, nor wave, nor tree, nor flower,
Nor green earth's virgin sod,
So moved the singer's heart of old
As these small ones of God.
The mystery of unfolding life
Was more than dawning morn,
Than opening flower or crescent moon
The human soul new-born.
And still to childhood's sweet appeal
The heart of genius turns,
And more than all the sages teach
From lisping voices learns,--
The voices loved of him who sang,
Where Tweed and Teviot glide,
That sound to-day on all the winds
That blow from Rydal-side,--
Heard in the Teuton's household songs,
And folk-lore of the Finn,
Where'er to holy Christmas hearths
The Christ-child enters in!
Before life's sweetest mystery still
The heart in reverence kneels;
The wonder of the primal birth
The latest mother feels.
We need love's tender lessons taught
As only weakness can;
God hath His small interpreters;
The child must teach the man.
We wander wide through evil years,
Our eyes of faith grow dim;
But he is freshest from His hands
And nearest unto Him!
And haply, pleading long with Him
For sin-sick hearts and cold,
The angels of our childhood still
The Father's face behold.
Of such the kingdom!--Teach Thou us,
O-Master most divine,
To feel the deep significance
Of these wise words of Thine!
The haughty eye shall seek in vain
What innocence beholds;
No cunning finds the key of heaven,
No strength its gate unfolds.
Alone to guilelessness and love
That gate shall open fall;
The mind of pride is nothingness,
The childlike heart is all!
Scheme | ABCB XAXA XDED XFXF XGXG XHXH XIXI JCXX XKXK XLXL LEJE MNXN XCXX XOMO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 110010111 0110101 01010111 0100101 0111100 0100101 010010101 011101 111111110 111101 11010111 111111 010010101 111101 1100101101 010111 0111101 011101 01110101 11101 01011111 11011 11111101 11111 100111 011101 10110101 011100 011101001 0101001 01010101 010101 11110101 110101 11110100 011101 11011101 1011111 11110111 010101 0110111 111101 01011011 010101 11010111 110101 11010100 111111 01011101 11001 110101110 111101 011101 111101 01111100 01111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,678 |
Words | 307 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 97 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:34 min read
- 127 Views
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"Child-Songs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22875/child-songs>.
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