Analysis of Angels unawares
Swami Vivekananda 1863 (Narendranath Datta Calcutta, Bengal Presidency) – 1902 (Belur Math, Bengal Presidency)
(Written on 1 September,1898.)
One bending low with load of life —
That meant no joy, but suffering harsh and hard —
And wending on his way through dark and dismal paths
Without a flash of light from brain or heart
To give a moment's cheer, till the line
That marks out pain from pleasure, death from life,
And good from what is evil was well-nigh wiped from sight,
Saw, one blessed night, a faint but beautiful ray of light
Descend to him. He knew not what or wherefrom,
But called it God and worshipped.
Hope, an utter stranger, came to him and spread
Through all his parts, and life to him meant more
Than he could ever dream and covered all he knew,
Nay, peeped beyond his world. The Sages
Winked, and smiled, and called it 'superstition'.
But he did feel its power and peace
And gently answered back —
'O Blessed Superstition! '
One drunk with wine of wealth and power
And health to enjoy them both, whirled on
His maddening course, till the earth, he thought,
Was made for him, his pleasure-garden, and man,
The crawling worm, was made to find him sport,
Till the thousand lights of joy, with pleasure fed,
That flickered day and night before his eyes,
With constant change of colours, began to blur
His sight, and cloy his senses; till selfishness,
Like a horny growth, had spread all o'er his heart;
And pleasure meant to him no more than pain,
Bereft of feeling; and life in the sense,
So joyful, precious once, a rotting corpse between his arms,
Which he forsooth would shun, but more he tried, the more
It clung to him; and wished, with frenzied brain,
A thousand forms of death, but quailed before the charm,
Then sorrow came — and Wealth and Power went —
And made him kinship find with all the human race
In groans and tears, and though his friends would laugh,
His lips would speak in grateful accents —
'O Blessed Misery! '
One born with healthy frame — but not of will
That can resist emotions deep and strong,
Nor impulse throw, surcharged with potent strength —
And just the sort that pass as good and kind,
Beheld that he was safe, whilst others long
And vain did struggle 'gainst the surging waves.
Till, morbid grown, his mind could see, like flies
That seek the putrid part, but what was bad.
Then Fortune smiled on him, and his foot slipped.
That ope'd his eyes for e'er, and made him find
That stones and trees ne'er break the law,
But stones and trees remain; that man alone
Is blest with power to fight and conquer Fate,
Transcending bounds and laws.
From him his passive nature fell, and life appeared
As broad and new, and broader, newer grew,
Till light ahead began to break, and glimpse of That
Where Peace Eternal dwells — yet one can only reach
By wading through the sea of struggles — courage-giving, came.
Then looking back on all that made him kin
To stocks and stones, and on to what the world
Had shunned him for, his fall, he blessed the fall,
And with a joyful heart, declared it —
'Blessed Sin! '
Scheme | A BXXCXBDDEXFGHXIXXI AXXXXFJAXCKXXGKEXXXXX XLXMLXJXXMXXXXXHXXENXXXN |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101010 11011111 11111100101 010111110101 0101111111 110101101 1111110111 0111110111111 1111011100111 0111111111 1111010 11101011101 1111011111 111101010111 110111010 101011010 111111001 010101 11010 111111010 011011111 1100110111 11111101001 0101111111 10101111101 1101010111 1101110111 11011101100 101011111011 0101111111 0111001001 11010101010111 11111111101 1111011101 010111110101 1101010101 01111110101 0101011111 111101010 11100 1111011111 1101010101 110111101 0101111101 111111101 0111010101 1101111111 1101011111 1101110111 11111100111 11011101 1101011101 11110110101 010101 111101010101 1101010101 110101110111 110101111101 11010111010101 1101111111 1101011101 1111111101 010101011 11 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,163 |
Words | 549 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 18, 21, 24 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 570 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 136 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 2:45 min read
- 114 Views
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"Angels unawares" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/43514/angels-unawares>.
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