Analysis of Lilith
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
Strange is the song, and the soul that is singing
Falters because of the vision it sees;
Voice that is not of the living is ringing
Down in the depths where the darkness is clinging,
Even when Noon is the lord of the leas,
Fast, like a curse, to the ghosts of the trees!
Here in a mist that is parted in sunder,
Half with the darkness and half with the day;
Face of a woman, but face of a wonder,
Vivid and wild as a flame of the thunder,
Flashes and fades, and the wail of the grey
Water is loud on the straits of the bay!
Father, whose years have been many and weary—
Elder, whose life is as lovely as light
Shining in ways that are sterile and dreary—
Tell me the name of this beautiful peri,
Flashing on me like the wonderful white
Star, at the meeting of morning and night.
Look to thy Saviour, and down on thy knee, man,
Lean on the Lord, as the Zebedee leaned;
Daughter of hell is the neighbour of thee, man—
Lilith, of Adam the luminous leman!
Turn to the Christ to be succoured and screened,
Saved from the eyes of a marvellous fiend!
Serpent she is in the shape of a woman,
Brighter than woman, ineffably fair!
Shelter thyself from the splendour, and sue, man;
Light that was never a loveliness human
Lives in the face of this sinister snare,
Longing to strangle thy soul with her hair!
Lilith, who came to the father and bound him
Fast with her eyes in the first of the springs;
Lilith she is, but remember she drowned him,
Shedding her flood of gold tresses around him—
Lulled him to sleep with the lyric she sings:
Melody strange with unspeakable things!
Low is her voice, but beware of it ever,
Swift bitter death is the fruit of delay;
Never was song of its beauty—ah! never—
Heard on the mountain, or meadow, or river,
Not of the night is it, not of the day—
Fly from it, stranger, away and away.
Back on the hills are the blossom and feather,
Glory of noon is on valley and spire;
Here is the grace of magnificent weather,
Where is the woman from gulfs of the nether?
Where is the fiend with the face of desire?
Gone, with a cry, in miraculous fire!
Sound that was not of this world, or the spacious
Splendid blue heaven, has passed from the lea;
Dead is the voice of the devil audacious:
Only a dream is her music fallacious,
Here, in the song and the shadow of tree,
Down by the green and the gold of the sea.
Scheme | ABAABBCDCCDD EFECFF GHGIHH IJGIJJ KLKKLL CDCCDD CXCCCC MEMMEE |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010011110 1001101011 11111010110 10011010110 1011101101 1101101101 10011110010 1101001101 11010111010 10011011010 1001001101 1011101101 10111110010 1011111011 10011110010 1101111001 1011101001 1101011001 1111011111 11011011 1011101111 10110010010 110111101 11011011 10110011010 1011011 101101011 111100110 1001111001 1011011101 10111010011 1101001101 10111010111 10011110011 1111101011 1001101001 11011011110 1101101101 10111110110 1101011110 1101111101 1111001001 11011010010 1011111001 11011010010 11010111010 11011011010 11010010010 11111111010 1011011101 11011010010 10011010010 100100111 1101001101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,305 |
Words | 451 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 225 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:15 min read
- 146 Views
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"Lilith" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17524/lilith>.
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