Analysis of Outlines
James Martin Devaney 1890 – 1976
The tufted gums along the rise
Stand black against the evening skies.
And in the red west sombreing
As daylight dies,
A simple moon-the loveliest thing.
I love outlines. It may be
Some old wise heritage in me,
For well we know that finite mind
Calls for the bounded and defined.
Though random fancy loves to range
The aimless mists of dawn, and strange
Lovely illusions in the sky
That charm and lie,
Something there is in mortal man
Must have a margin and a plan;
And Truth the tyrant has decreed
For human need,
Limit and form since thought began.
This long bold mountain line is true,
But not those changing whims I see
Gleamy and vague and visionary
In air-built blue.
Deep in the soul we understand
Our nature's mystical demand
For the old sane austerities:
O pilgrim of a homeless land,
Hold fast to these.
Across the stumbling centuries
The eyes of men turn backward still
To a firm Cross upon a hill.
Scheme | AABABCCDDEEBFGGHHGICCIJJAJKKLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (33%) Etheree (27%) |
Metre | 01010101 11010101 000111 111 0101011 111111 11110001 1111111 11010001 11010111 01011101 10010001 1101 10110101 11010001 01010101 1101 10011101 11110111 11110111 1010100 0111 1001101 101010001 10111 11010101 1111 010100100 01111101 10110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 887 |
Words | 168 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 30 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 723 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 166 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 96 Views
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"Outlines" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20269/outlines>.
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