Analysis of Before the Altar
Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)
Before the Altar, bowed, he stands
With empty hands;
Upon it perfumed offerings burn
Wreathing with smoke the sacrificial urn.
Not one of all these has he given,
No flame of his has leapt to Heaven
Firesouled, vermilion-hearted,
Forked, and darted,
Consuming what a few spare pence
Have cheaply bought, to fling from hence
In idly-asked petition.
His sole condition
Love and poverty.
And while the moon
Swings slow across the sky,
Athwart a waving pine tree,
And soon
Tips all the needles there
With silver sparkles, bitterly
He gazes, while his soul
Grows hard with thinking of the poorness of his dole.
"Shining and distant Goddess, hear my prayer
Where you swim in the high air!
With charity look down on me,
Under this tree,
Tending the gifts I have not brought,
The rare and goodly things
I have not sought.
Instead, take from me all my life!
"Upon the wings
Of shimmering moonbeams
I pack my poet's dreams
For you.
My wearying strife,
My courage, my loss,
Into the night I toss
For you.
Golden Divinity,
Deign to look down on me
Who so unworthily
Offers to you:
All life has known,
Seeds withered unsown,
Hopes turning quick to fears,
Laughter which dies in tears.
The shredded remnant of a man
Is all the span
And compass of my offering to you.
"Empty and silent, I
Kneel before your pure, calm majesty.
On this stone, in this urn
I pour my heart and watch it burn,
Myself the sacrifice; but be
Still unmoved: Divinity.”
From the altar, bathed in moonlight,
The smoke rose straight in the quiet night.
Scheme | aabbccxxddc cefgefheii hheejkjl kmmNlooNeeinxbxxppn gebbee qq |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010111 1101 011011001 11100101 111111110 111111110 101010 1010 01010111 11011111 0101010 11010 10100 0101 110101 0101011 01 110101 11010100 110111 11110101111 1001010111 1110011 11001111 1011 10011111 010101 1111 01111111 0101 11001 111101 11 11001 11011 010111 11 100100 111111 111 1011 1111 1101 110111 101101 01010101 1101 0101110011 100101 101111100 111011 11110111 101011 1010100 1010101 011100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,518 |
Words | 273 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 10, 8, 19, 6, 2 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 197 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 13, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 134 Views
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"Before the Altar" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2205/before-the-altar>.
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