Analysis of Friendship
Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)
Friend!--the Great Ruler, easily content,
Needs not the laws it has laborious been
The task of small professors to invent;
A single wheel impels the whole machine
Matter and spirit;--yea, that simple law,
Pervading nature, which our Newton saw.
This taught the spheres, slaves to one golden rein,
Their radiant labyrinths to weave around
Creation's mighty hearts: this made the chain,
Which into interwoven systems bound
All spirits streaming to the spiritual sun
As brooks that ever into ocean run!
Did not the same strong mainspring urge and guide
Our hearts to meet in love's eternal bond?
Linked to thine arm, O Raphael, by thy side
Might I aspire to reach to souls beyond
Our earth, and bid the bright ambition go
To that perfection which the angels know!
Happy, O happy--I have found thee--I
Have out of millions found thee, and embraced;
Thou, out of millions, mine!--Let earth and sky
Return to darkness, and the antique waste--
To chaos shocked, let warring atoms be,
Still shall each heart unto the other flee!
Do I not find within thy radiant eyes
Fairer reflections of all joys most fair?
In thee I marvel at myself--the dyes
Of lovely earth seem lovelier painted there,
And in the bright looks of the friend is given
A heavenlier mirror even of the heaven!
Sadness casts off its load, and gayly goes
From the intolerant storm to rest awhile,
In love's true heart, sure haven of repose;
Does not pain's veriest transports learn to smile
From that bright eloquence affection gave
To friendly looks?--there, finds not pain a grave?
In all creation did I stand alone,
Still to the rocks my dreams a soul should find,
Mine arms should wreathe themselves around the stone,
My griefs should feel a listener in the wind;
My joy--its echo in the caves should be!
Fool, if ye will--Fool, for sweet sympathy!
We are dead groups of matter when we hate;
But when we love we are as gods!--Unto
The gentle fetters yearning, through each state
And shade of being multiform, and through
All countless spirits (save of all the sire)--
Moves, breathes, and blends, the one divine desire.
Lo! arm in arm, through every upward grade,
From the rude mongrel to the starry Greek,
Who the fine link between the mortal made,
And heaven's last seraph--everywhere we seek
Union and bond--till in one sea sublime
Of love be merged all measure and all time!
Friendless ruled God His solitary sky;
He felt the want, and therefore souls were made,
The blessed mirrors of his bliss!--His eye
No equal in His loftiest works surveyed;
And from the source whence souls are quickened, He
Called His companion forth--ETERNITY!
Scheme | AXAXBB CDCDEE FGFGHH IJIJKK LMLMEE NONOPP QRQRKK STSTUU VWVWXX IVIVKK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011010010 11011101001 0111010101 010110101 1001011101 01010110101 1101111101 110011101 11011101 101010101 110101010001 1111001101 110111101 10111010101 1111101111 1101111101 10101010101 1101010101 1011011111 1111011001 1111011101 0111000011 1101110101 1111100101 11110111001 1001011111 011101101 110111101 00011101110 0110101010 101111011 10010011101 0111110101 111101111 1111000101 1101111101 0101011101 1101110111 1111010101 11110100001 1111000111 1111111100 1111110111 1111111110 0101010111 01110101 11010111010 11010101010 11011100101 101110101 1011010101 010111011 1001101101 1111110011 11111001 110101101 011011111 110011101 0101111101 1101010100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,570 |
Words | 456 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 205 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 2:18 min read
- 309 Views
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"Friendship" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14321/friendship>.
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