Analysis of The Innocence of Infancy

John Bowring 1792 (Exeter) – 1872 (Claremont, Devon)



With gentle words and gracious look,
The loving Saviour spoke and smiled;
When in His welcoming arms He took
A happy child, and blessed the child.

For childhood's earliest day begins
In the bright heaven of innocence,
Ere wand'ring thoughts or tempting sins
Seduce its erring footsteps thence.

Would that, as following years roll on,
Life's infant brightness might endure,
And leave us, when those years are gone,
Pure, as a happy child is pure!

O God! who veil'st the future o'er,
Through whose thick darkness none can see,
Protect, preserve, redeem, restore
The innocence of infancy.


Scheme ABAB CXCX XDXD XEXE
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 11010101 0101101 101100111 01010101 11100101 001101100 11111101 0111011 111100111 11010101 01111111 11010111 1111101010 11110111 01010101 01001100
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 578
Words 99
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 116
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
46

John Bowring

Sir John Bowring (Chinese translated name: 寶寧, 寶靈 (for Mandarin speakers) or 包令 (for Cantonese)) (Thai: พระยาสยามมานุกูลกิจ สยามมิตรมหายศ) (17 October 1792 – 23 November 1872) was an English political economist, traveller, writer, literary translator, polyglot and the fourth Governor of Hong Kong.  more…

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