Analysis of The Wheat And Tares

John Newton 1725 (Wapping, London) – 1807 (London)



Though in the outward church below
The wheat and tares together grow;
Jesus ere long will weed the crop,
And pluck the tares, in anger, up.

Will it relieve their horrors there,
To recollect their stations here?
How much they heard, how much they knew,
How long amongst the wheat they grew!

O! this will aggravate their case!
They perished under means of grace;
To them the word of life and faith,
Became an instrument of death.

We seem alike when thus we meet,
Strangers might think we all are wheat;
But to the Lord's all-searching eyes,
Each heart appears without disguise.

The tares are spared for various ends,
Some, for the sake of praying friends;
Others, the Lord, against their will,
Employs his counsels to fulfill.

But though they grow so tall and strong,
His plan will not require them long;
In harvest, when he saves his own,
The tares shall into hell be thrown.


Scheme AAXX XXBB CCXX DDEE FFGG HHII
Poetic Form Quatrain  (50%)
Metre 10010101 01010101 10111101 01010101 11011101 1011101 11111111 11010111 1111011 11010111 11011101 01110011 11011111 10111111 11011101 11010101 011111001 11011101 10010111 01110101 11111101 11111011 01011111 01101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 864
Words 158
Sentences 10
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 114
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

47 sec read
111

John Newton

Rev Dr John A Newton CBE is a prominent Methodist minister, author, historian and former President of the Methodist Conference. more…

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