Analysis of SELA
SELAH
Can you ever hear a silent thought, a desire?
Or sometimes, a trickling tear?
Can you ever hear the words of a song
Even before the singing begins
Or have a dream in any night
Even before your head in sleep you lay?
Can you ever see worlds and worlds of emptiness?
And there, you are with yourself, happy and gay?
Can you ever see the sun on a bleaky day
When all is dark and shut away,
Or feel its heat in the coldest winter
Though you be sure it’s not miles, but days or months away?
Can you ever see the waters of a river, clear and plain,
Or even let it wet your feet,
Though its bed be dry from a battering drought?
Can you ever find a calm in the greatest storm of day,
life or way,
Or sit and smile with your foes,
From dawn ‘til dusk of any day?
Can you find your way with but just a streak of light,
On the darkest of all darkened nights
Or find a hope somewhere, floating in the air,
When all is lost except your tears and fears that never go away?
I can!
Scheme | ABCXXDA XEEEBE XXXEEXE DXCEX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (24%) |
Metre | 1 1110101010010 1010101 1110101101 100101001 11010101 1001110111 111011011100 01111011001 11101011011 11110101 1111001010 1111111111101 111010101010101 11011111 11111101001 11101010010111 111 1101111 11111101 111111110111 101011101 1101110001 1111011101110101 11 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,027 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 6, 7, 5 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 187 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
About this poem
This poem is about the dreams and mysteries that inhabit the mind of man and torment his nature as man, a mortal being.
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Written on September 12, 2000
Submitted by jaime_h on December 02, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 8 Views
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"SELA" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/114990/sela>.
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