Analysis of Kinsman

John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)



Where ceaseless Spring her garland twines,
As sweetly shall the loved one rest,
As if beneath the whispering pines
And maple shadows of the West.

Ye mourn, O hearts of home! for him,
But, haply, mourn ye not alone;
For him shall far-off eyes be dim,
And pity speak in tongues unknown.

There needs no graven line to give
The story of his blameless youth;
All hearts shall throb intuitive,
And nature guess the simple truth.

The very meaning of his name
Shall many a tender tribute win;
The stranger own his sacred claim,
And all the world shall be his kin.

And there, as here, on main and isle,
The dews of holy peace shall fall,
The same sweet heavens above him smile,
And God's dear love be over all


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 11010101 11010111 110101001 0101101 11111111 1111101 11111111 01010101 11110111 01011101 11110100 01010101 01010111 110010101 01011101 01011111 01111101 01110111 011100111 01111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 689
Words 133
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 109
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
72

John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. more…

All John Greenleaf Whittier poems | John Greenleaf Whittier Books

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