Analysis of Quiet Eyes
Katharine Tynan 1861 (Ireland) – 1931
The boys come home, come home from war,
With quiet eyes for quiet things --
A child, a lamb, a flower, a star,
A bird that softly sings.
Young faces war-worn and deep-lined,
The satin smoothness past recall;
Yet out of sight is out of mind
For the worst wrong of all.
As nightmare dreams that pass with sleep,
The horror and grief intolerable.
The unremembering young eyes keep
Their innocence. All is well!
The worldling's eyes are dusty dim,
The eyes of sin are weary and cold,
The fighting boy brings home with him
The unsullied eyes of old.
The war has furrowed the young face.
Oh, there's no all-heal, no wound-wort!
The soul looks from its hidden place
Unharmed, unflawed, unhurt.
Scheme | XAXA BCBC DXDX EFEF GBGX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Etheree (35%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 01111111 11011101 010101001 011101 11011011 0101011 11111111 101111 1111111 0100101000 01111 1100111 0111101 011111001 01011111 0010111 01110011 11111111 01111101 01101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 675 |
Words | 125 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 17, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 106 Views
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"Quiet Eyes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24999/quiet-eyes>.
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