Analysis of Why I Wake Early

Mary Oliver 1935 (Maple Heights, OH) – 2019 (Hobe Sound, FL)



Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.


Scheme A XBXXXXA XXXCBXB XC
Poetic Form
Metre 11110 011011 01111010 0111001 0010101010 00101010 0010101100 10000100 1101101 111110 111110010 11111010 1111110 111001111 110110110 1111101 0100010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 532
Words 108
Sentences 3
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 1, 7, 7, 2
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 102
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted by naheed.virk on April 20, 2022

Modified on May 03, 2023

32 sec read
1,493

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver was an award-winning poet with fans throughout the world. In addition to her numerous literary prizes, as noted by New York Times, Oliver was, "far and away, this country's best-selling poet." more…

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