Analysis of Olney Hymn 67: Longing To Be With Christ

William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)



To Jesus, the crown of my hope,
My soul is in haste to be gone;
O bear me, ye cherubim, up,
And waft me away to His throne!

My Saviour, whom absent I love,
Whom, not having seen I adore;
Whose name is exalted above
All glory, dominion, and power;

Dissolve thou these bonds that detain
My soul from her portion in thee.
Ah! strike off this adamant chain,
And make me eternally free.

When that happy era begins,
When arrayed in Thy glories I shine,
Nor grieve any more, by my sins,
The bosom on which I recline.

Oh then shall the veil be removed,
And round me Thy brightness be pour'd,
I shall meet Him whom absent I loved,
Shall see Him whom unseen I adored.

And then, never more shall the fears,
The trials, temptation, and woes,
Which darken this valley of tears,
Intrude on my blissful repose.

Or, if yet remember'd above,
Remembrance no sadness shall raise,
They will be but new signs of Thy love,
New themes for my wonder and praise.

Thus the strokes which from sin and from pain
Shall set me eternally free,
Will but strengthen and rivet the chain
Which binds me, my Saviour, to Thee.


Scheme XXXX AXAX BCBC DEDE XFXF XGXG AHAH BCBC
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 11001111 11101111 111111 01101111 1111011 11101101 11101001 110010010 01111101 11101001 11111001 01101001 11101001 101011011 11101111 01011101 11101101 01111011 111111011 111101101 01101101 01001001 11011011 01111001 11101001 01011011 111111111 11111001 101111011 11101001 111001001 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,097
Words 207
Sentences 10
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 105
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
49

William Cowper

William Macquarie Cowper was an Australian Anglican archdeacon and Dean of Sydney. more…

All William Cowper poems | William Cowper Books

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