Analysis of A Mystery
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
The river hemmed with leaning trees
Wound through its meadows green;
A low, blue line of mountains showed
The open pines between.
One sharp, tall peak above them all
Clear into sunlight sprang
I saw the river of my dreams,
The mountains that I sang!
No clue of memory led me on,
But well the ways I knew;
A feeling of familiar things
With every footstep grew.
Not otherwise above its crag
Could lean the blasted pine;
Not otherwise the maple hold
Aloft its red ensign.
So up the long and shorn foot-hills
The mountain road should creep;
So, green and low, the meadow fold
Its red-haired kine asleep.
The river wound as it should wind;
Their place the mountains took;
The white torn fringes of their clouds
Wore no unwonted look.
Yet ne'er before that river's rim
Was pressed by feet of mine,
Never before mine eyes had crossed
That broken mountain line.
A presence, strange at once and known,
Walked with me as my guide;
The skirts of some forgotten life
Trailed noiseless at my side.
Was it a dim-remembered dream?
Or glimpse through ions old?
The secret which the mountains kept
The river never told.
But from the vision ere it passed
A tender hope I drew,
And, pleasant as a dawn of spring,
The thought within me grew,
That love would temper every change,
And soften all surprise,
And, misty with the dreams of earth,
The hills of Heaven arise.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC BDEX XFEF XGXG XDXD XHXH XEXE XCXC XIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011101 11111 01111101 010101 11110111 10111 11010111 010111 111100111 110111 01010101 110011 1100111 110101 1100101 011110 11010111 010111 1101011 111101 01011111 110101 01110111 1111 11011101 111111 10011111 110101 01011101 111111 01110101 11111 11010101 111101 01010101 010101 11010111 010111 01010111 010111 111101001 010101 01010111 0111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,312 |
Words | 246 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 97 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 123 Views
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