Analysis of The Common Question
Behind us at our evening meal
The gray bird ate his fill,
Swung downward by a single claw,
And wiped his hooked bill.
He shook his wings and crimson tail,
And set his head aslant,
And, in his sharp, impatient way,
Asked, 'What does Charlie want?'
'Fie, silly bird!' I answered, 'tuck
Your head beneath your wing,
And go to sleep;'--but o'er and o'er
He asked the self-same thing.
Then, smiling, to myself I said
How like are men and birds!
We all are saying what he says,
In action or in words.
The boy with whip and top and drum,
The girl with hoop and doll,
And men with lands and houses, ask
The question of Poor Poll.
However full, with something more
We fain the bag would cram;
We sigh above our crowded nets
For fish that never swam.
No bounty of indulgent Heaven
The vague desire can stay;
Self-love is still a Tartar mill
For grinding prayers alway.
The dear God hears and pities all;
He knoweth all our wants;
And what we blindly ask of Him
His love withholds or grants.
And so I sometimes think our prayers
Might well be merged in one;
And nest and perch and hearth and church
Repeat, 'Thy will be done.'
Scheme | XAXA XBCB XDXD BEXE XXXX XFXF GBAC XXXX XGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 011110101 011111 11010101 01111 11110101 01111 00110101 111101 11011101 110111 0111110010 110111 1101111 111101 11110111 010101 01110101 011101 01110101 010111 1011101 110111 110110101 111101 110101010 0101011 11110101 11011 0111011 111101 01110111 11111 011011101 111101 01010101 011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,088 |
Words | 217 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 95 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 128 Views
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"The Common Question" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23071/the-common-question>.
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