Analysis of Veils



Veils, everywhere float veils; veils long and black,
Framing white faces, oft-times young and fair,
But, like a rose touched by untimely frost,
Showing the blighting marks of sorrow's track.

Veils, veils, veils everywhere. They tell the cost
Of man-made war. They show the awful toll
Paid by the hearts of women for the crimes,
The age-old crimes by selfishness ill-named
'Justice' and 'Honour' and 'The call of Fate'-
High words men use to hide their low estate.
About the joy and beauty of this world
A long black veil is furled.
Even the face of Heaven itself seems lost
Behind a veil. It takes a fervent soul
In these tense times
To visualise a God so long defamed
By insolent lips, that send out prayers, and prate
Of God's collaboration in dark deeds,
So foul they put to shame the fiends of hell.

Yet One
does
dwell
In Secret Centres of the Universe-
The Mighty Maker; and He hears and heeds
The still small voice of soulful, selfless faith;
And He is lifting now the veil of death,
So long down-dropped between those worlds and earth.
Yea! He is giving faith a great new birth
By letting echoes from the hidden places
Where dwell our dead, fall on love's listening ear.
Hearken, and you shall hear
The messages which come from those star-spaces!
That is the reason why
God let so many die;
That the vast hordes of suffering hearts might wake
Mighty vibrations, and the silence break
Between the neighbouring worlds, and lift the veil
'Twixt life on earth, and life Beyond. All hail
To great Jehovah, Who has given life
Eternal, everlasting, after strife!

Veils, long black veils, you shall be bridal white.
Eyes, blind with tears, you shall receive your sight,
And see your dead alive in Worlds of Light.


Scheme AXBA XCDEFFXBBCDEBGH XIHXGXXJJIKKILLMMNNOO PPP
Poetic Form
Metre 110111101 1011011101 1101110101 10011111 111101101 1111110101 1101110101 0111110011 100100111 1111111101 0101010111 011111 10011100111 0101110101 0111 11011101 11001111101 110010011 1111110111 11 1 1 010101010 0101001101 0111110101 0111010111 1111011101 1111010111 11010101010 111011111001 10111 01001111110 110101 111101 10111100111 1001000101 010110101 1111010111 1101011101 010010101 1111111101 1111110111 0111010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,679
Words 306
Sentences 16
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 15, 21, 3
Lines Amount 43
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 336
Words per stanza (avg) 76
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:33 min read
81

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

All Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems | Ella Wheeler Wilcox Books

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