Analysis of Utterance
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
But what avail inadequate words to reach
The innermost of Truth? Who shall essay,
Blinded and weak, to point and lead the way,
Or solve the mystery in familiar speech?
Yet, if it be that something not thy own,
Some shadow of the Thought to which our schemes,
Creeds, cult, and ritual are at best but dreams,
Is even to thy unworthiness made known,
Thou mayst not hide what yet thou shouldst not dare
To utter lightly, lest on lips of thine
The real seem false, the beauty undivine.
So, weighing duty in the scale of prayer,
Give what seems given thee. It may prove a seed
Of goodness dropped in fallow-grounds of need.
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFCEGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010100111 010111101 1001110101 11010000101 1111110111 1110111101 11010011111 11011111 1111111111 1101011111 01110101 1101000111 11110111101 110101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 613 |
Words | 116 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 485 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 72 Views
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"Utterance" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23273/utterance>.
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