Analysis of The Quiet Eye
Eliza Cook 1818 (London Road, Southwark) – 1889 (Wimbledon)
THE ORB I like is not the one
That dazzles with its lightning gleam;
That dares to look upon the sun,
As though it challenged brighter beam.
That orb may sparkle, flash, and roll;
Its fire may blaze, its shaft may fly;
But not for me: I prize the soul
That slumbers in a quiet eye.
There ’s something in its placid shade
That tells of calm, unworldly thought;
Hope may be crown’d, or joy delay’d—
No dimness steals, no ray is caught.
Its pensive language seems to say,
“I know that I must close and die;”
And death itself, come when it may,
Can hardly change the quiet eye.
There ’s meaning in its steady glance,
Of gentle blame or praising love,
That makes me tremble to advance
A word, that meaning might reprove.
The haughty threat, the fiery look,
My spirit proudly can defy,
But never yet could meet and brook
The upbraiding of a quiet eye.
There ’s firmness in its even light,
That augurs of a breast sincere:
And, oh! take watch how ye excite
That firmness till it yield a tear.
Some bosoms give an easy sigh,
Some drops of grief will freely start,
But that which sears the quiet eye
Hath its deep fountain in the heart.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EXEXFDFD GHGHIDID JXJXDKDK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111101 1111101 11110101 11110101 11110101 110111111 11111101 1100101 111001101 111111 1111111 1111111 11010111 11111101 01011111 11010101 111001101 11011101 11110101 0111011 010101001 11010101 11011101 0110101 111001101 11010101 01111101 11011101 1111101 11111101 11110101 11110001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,192 |
Words | 216 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 218 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 119 Views
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"The Quiet Eye" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10204/the-quiet-eye>.
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