Analysis of Joy's City
Isabella Valancy Crawford 1850 (Dublin) – 1887 (Toronto)
Joy's City hath high battlements of gold;
Joy's City hath her streets of gem-wrought flow'rs;
She hath her palaces high reared and bold,
And tender shades of perfumed lily bowers;
But ever day by day, and ever night by night,
An Angel measures still our City of Delight.
He hath a rule of gold, and never stays,
But ceaseless round the burnish'd ramparts glides;
He measures minutes of her joyous days,
Her walls, her trees, the music of her tides;
The roundness of her buds--Joy's own fair city lies,
Known to its heart-core by his stern and thoughtful eyes.
Above the sounds of timbrel and of song,
Of greeting friends, of lovers 'mid the flowers,
The Angel's voice arises clear and strong:
'O City, by so many leagues thy bow'rs
Stretch o'er the plains, and in the fair high-lifted blue
So many cubits rise thy tow'rs beyond the view.'
Why dost thou, Angel, measure Joy's fair walls?
Unceasing gliding by their burnish'd stones;
Go, rather measure Sorrow's gloomy halls;
Her cypress bow'rs, her charnel-house of bones;
Her groans, her tears, the rue in her jet chalices;
But leave unmeasured more, Joy's fairy palaces.
The Angel spake: 'Joy hath her limits set,
But Sorrow hath no bounds--Joy is a guest
Perchance may enter; but no heart puls'd yet,
Where Sorrow did not lay her down to rest;
She hath no city by so many leagues confin'd,
I cannot measure bounds where there are none to find.'
Scheme | ABABCC BBBBBB DBDBEE BBBBBB FGFGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1101110011 1101011111 1101001101 01011011010 110111010111 1101011010101 1101110101 110101011 1101010101 0101010101 01101111101 111111110101 010111011 11011101010 011010101 1101110111 1100100011101 11011110101 1111010111 0101011101 110101101 010101111 0101010011 1111110100 0101110101 1101111101 0111011111 1101110111 111101110101 110101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,375 |
Words | 249 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 216 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 49 Views
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