Analysis of What Is Christ?
I
OH, what is Christ, that we should call on Him?
Wasted Armenia, in her utter woe,
Dies in the mocking desert, calling so.
Hyænas tear her children limb from limb.
The clouds, soft dimpled once with cherubim,
Now screen the flight of Lucifers that strow
Their fiery seed where clustered households know
'Twixt sleep and death one flaring interim
Of agony, brief as the broken prayer.
What prayer? What Christ? Himself He could not save.
From first to last, when hath He saved His own?
Stephen's young body, battered stone by stone,
Edith Cavell in her most holy grave,
For His helpless host of martyrs witness bear.
II
Thought casts the challenge. Faith must lift the glove.
Most true it is Christ doth not save the flesh.
God's dreamy Nazarene, caught in the mesh
Of ignorance and malice, whitest dove
Net ever snared, took little care thereof.
Not His to plead with Pilate, nor to thresh
Those priestly lies. He died, to live afresh
Spirit, not body; not the Jew, but Love.
Love, the one Light in which all lusters meet,
Ultimate miracle, far goal of Time!
Even to-day, when all seems lost, they feel,
Those nations that like hooded sorrows kneel,
Their prayer's deep answer, loathing war as crime,
Longing to gather at Love's wounded feet.
Scheme | ABCCBBCCXDEFFED AGHHGGHHGIJKKJI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1 1111111111 10010000101 1001010101 111010111 01110111 11011111 1100111011 1101110100 1100110101 1111011111 1111111111 1011010111 1001001101 11101110101 1 1101011101 1111111101 11011001 1100010101 110111011 111111111 1101111101 1011010111 101101111 1001001111 1011111111 1101110101 1111010111 1011011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,223 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 15 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 487 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 109 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 10, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 79 Views
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"What Is Christ?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24931/what-is-christ%3F>.
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