Analysis of The speech of silence
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
The solemn Sea of Silence lies between us;
I know thou livest, and them lovest me,
And yet I wish some white ship would come sailing
Across the ocean, beating word from thee.
The dead calm awes me with its awful stillness.
No anxious doubts or fears disturb my breast;
I only ask some little wave of language,
To stir this vast infinitude of rest.
I am oppressed with this great sense of loving;
So much I give, so much receive from thee;
Like subtle incense, rising from a censer,
So floats the fragrance of thy love round me.
All speech is poor, and written words unmeaning;
Yet such I ask, blown hither by some wind,
To give relief to this too perfect knowledge,
The Silence so impresses on my mind.
How poor the love that needeth word or message,
To banish doubt or nourish tenderness!
I ask them but to temper love's convictions
The Silence all too fully doth express.
Too deep the language which the spirit utters;
Too vast the knowledge which my soul hath stirred.
Send some white ship across the Sea of Silence,
And interrupt its utterance with a word.
Scheme | A B C B A D E D C B X B C F E F E A X X X G X G |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011101011 11110111 01111111110 0101010111 01111111010 1101110111 11011101110 1111111 11011111110 1111110111 11001101010 1101011111 111101011 1111110111 11011110110 0101010111 1101111110 1101110100 11111101010 0101110101 11010101010 1101011111 11110101110 0011100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,045 |
Words | 196 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 24 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 35 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 8 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 59 sec read
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