Analysis of The Singer
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Years since (but names to me before),
Two sisters sought at eve my door;
Two song-birds wandering from their nest,
A gray old farm-house in the West.
How fresh of life the younger one,
Half smiles, half tears, like rain in sun!
Her gravest mood could scarce displace
The dimples of her nut-brown face.
Wit sparkled on her lips not less
For quick and tremulous tenderness;
And, following close her merriest glance,
Dreamed through her eyes the heart's romance.
Timid and still, the elder had
Even then a smile too sweetly sad;
The crown of pain that all must wear
Too early pressed her midnight hair.
Yet ere the summer eve grew long,
Her modest lips were sweet with song;
A memory haunted all her words
Of clover-fields and singing birds.
Her dark, dilating eyes expressed
The broad horizons of the west;
Her speech dropped prairie flowers; the gold
Of harvest wheat about her rolled.
Fore-doomed to song she seemed to me
I queried not with destiny
I knew the trial and the need,
Yet, all the more, I said, God speed?
What could I other than I did?
Could I a singing-bird forbid?
Deny the wind-stirred leaf? Rebuke
The music of the forest brook?
She went with morning from my door,
But left me richer than before;
Thenceforth I knew her voice of cheer,
The welcome of her partial ear.
Years passed: through all the land her name
A pleasant household word became
All felt behind the singer stood
A sweet and gracious womanhood.
Her life was earnest work, not play;
Her tired feet climbed a weary way;
And even through her lightest strain
We heard an undertone of pain.
Unseen of her her fair fame grew,
The good she did she rarely knew,
Unguessed of her in life the love
That rained its tears her grave above.
When last I saw her, full of peace,
She waited for her great release;
And that old friend so sage and bland,
Our later Franklin, held her hand.
For all that patriot bosoms stirs
Had moved that woman's heart of hers,
And men who toiled in storm and sun
Found her their meet companion.
Our converse, from her suffering bed
To healthful themes of life she led
The out-door world of bud and bloom
And light and sweetness filled her room.
Yet evermore an underthought
Of loss to come within us wrought,
And all the while we felt the strain
Of the strong will that conquered pain.
God giveth quietness at last!
The common way that all have passed
She went, with mortal yearnings fond,
To fuller life and love beyond.
Fold the rapt soul in your embrace,
My dear ones! Give the singer place
To you, to her,--I know not where,--
I lift the silence of a prayer.
For only thus our own we find;
The gone before, the left behind,
All mortal voices die between;
The unheard reaches the unseen.
Again the blackbirds sing; the streams
Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams,
And tremble in the April showers
The tassels of the maple flowers.
But not for her has spring renewed
The sweet surprises of the wood;
And bird and flower are lost to her
Who was their best interpreter.
What to shut eyes has God revealed?
What hear the ears that death has sealed?
What undreamed beauty passing show
Requites the loss of all we know?
O silent land, to which we move,
Enough if there alone be love,
And mortal need can ne'er outgrow
What it is waiting to bestow!
O white soul! from that far-off shore
Float some sweet song the waters o'er.
Our faith confirm, our fears dispel,
With the old voice we loved so well!
Scheme | AABB CCDD XXEE FFGG HHII BBJJ KKLL MMXX AAXX NNOO PPQQ RRSS TTUU VVCC WWXX BXQQ YYZZ DDGG 1 1 2 2 3 3 VV XO4 4 5 5 6 6 XS6 6 A4 7 7 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 11111101 11011111 111100111 01111001 11110101 11111101 01011101 01010111 11010111 110100100 01001011 11010101 10010101 101011101 01111111 1101011 11010111 01010111 010010101 11010101 011101 01010101 011101001 11010101 11111111 11011100 11010001 11011111 11110111 11010101 01011101 01010101 11110111 11110101 1110111 01010101 11110101 0101101 11010101 0101010 01110111 010110101 01010101 1111011 01100111 01111101 1100101 11110101 11110111 11010101 01111101 101010101 11110011 11110110 01110101 1011010 1010101001 11011111 01111101 01010101 11011 11110111 01011101 10111101 11010011 01011111 11110101 11010101 10110101 11110101 11101111 11010101 110110111 01010101 11010101 00110001 01010101 11011101 010001010 01101010 11101101 01010101 010101110 11110100 11111101 11011111 10110101 1011111 11011111 01110111 0101111 11110101 11111111 111101010 1010110101 10111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,311 |
Words | 625 |
Sentences | 35 |
Stanzas | 24 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 96 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 111 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:08 min read
- 110 Views
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"The Singer" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23197/the-singer>.
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