Analysis of The Mystic’s Christmas
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
'All hail!' the bells of Christmas rang,
'All hail!' the monks at Christmas sang,
The merry monks who kept with cheer
The gladdest day of all their year.
But still apart, unmoved thereat,
A pious elder brother sat
Silent, in his accustomed place,
With God's sweet peace upon his face.
'Why sitt'st thou thus?' his brethren cried.
'It is the blessed Christmas-tide;
The Christmas lights are all aglow,
The sacred lilies bud and blow.
'Above our heads the joy-bells ring,
Without the happy children sing,
And all God's creatures hail the morn
On which the holy Christ was born!
'Rejoice with us; no more rebuke
Our gladness with thy quiet look.'
The gray monk answered: 'Keep, I pray,
Even as ye list, the Lord's birthday.
'Let heathen Yule fires flicker red
Where thronged refectory feasts are spread;
With mystery-play and masque and mime
And wait-songs speed the holy time!
'The blindest faith may haply save;
The Lord accepts the things we have;
And reverence, howsoe'er it strays,
May find at last the shining ways.
'They needs must grope who cannot see,
The blade before the ear must be;
As ye are feeling I have felt,
And where ye dwell I too have dwelt.
'But now, beyond the things of sense,
Beyond occasions and events,
I know, through God's exceeding grace,
Release from form and time and place.
'I listen, from no mortal tongue,
To hear the song the angels sung;
And wait within myself to know
The Christmas lilies bud and blow.
'The outward symbols disappear
From him whose inward sight is clear;
And small must be the choice of clays
To him who fills them all with praise!
'Keep while you need it, brothers mine,
With honest zeal your Christmas sign,
But judge not him who every morn
Feels in his heart the Lord Christ born!'
Scheme | AABB CCDD CCEE FFGG XXXC CCHH XXII JJCC XXDD KKEE BBII LLGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 11011101 11011101 01011111 0111111 1101011 01010101 10010101 11110111 11111101 1101101 01011101 01010101 011010111 01010101 01110101 11010111 01111101 10111101 01110111 10111011 110110101 111111 110010101 01110101 011111 01010111 0100111 11110101 11111101 01010111 11110111 01111111 11010111 01010001 11110101 01110101 11011101 11010101 0101111 01010101 0101001 11110111 01110111 11111111 11111101 11011101 111111001 10110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,697 |
Words | 314 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 112 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:34 min read
- 135 Views
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"The Mystic’s Christmas" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23148/the-mystic%E2%80%99s-christmas>.
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