Analysis of The Secret Key
George Essex Evans 1863 (London) – 1909 (Toowoomba)
There is a magic kingdom of strange powers,
Thought-hidden, lit by other stars than ours;
And, when a wanderer through its mazes brings
Word of things seen, men say: “A poet sings.”
Its gates are guarded in a sterile land—
Mountain and deep morass, and shifting sand;
Storm-barred are they, and may not opened be
Save by the hand that finds the secret key.
That key, some say, lies in the sunset glow,
Or the white arc of dawn, or where the flow
Of some lone river stems the shoreward wave
In shuddering silver on its ocean grave.
Some say that when the wind wars with the sea,
In that stern music, one may find the key;
Or, in green glooms of forests, where the pine
Uplifts her spear amid great wreaths of vine;
Or, where the streaming mist’s white rollers climb
The dark ravine and precipice sublime—
A filmy sea that twines and intertwines
Wreathes the low hills, and veils the mighty lines
Of sovran mountains, crimsoned and aglow
In crystal pomp, crested with jewelled snow;
But still, with souls afire, men seek that land,
And die in deep morass and shifting sand.
To those alone its iron gates are free,
Who find, within their hearts, the secret key;
For Earth, with all the colour of her day,
Is not their country—that lies far away.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFDDGGHHAIEECCDDJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101110 11011101110 01010011101 1111110101 1111000101 1001010101 1111011101 1101110101 111110011 1011111101 1111010101 01001011101 1111011101 0111011101 1011110101 101011111 1101011101 0101010001 0111101 1011010101 110101001 010110111 1111011111 0101010101 1101110111 1101110101 111101101 1111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,235 |
Words | 229 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 971 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 226 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 67 Views
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"The Secret Key" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14985/the-secret-key>.
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