Analysis of Honours - Part2 conclusion
Jean Ingelow 1820 (Boston) – 1897
Bereft of heaven, and of the long-loved page
Wrought us by some who thought with death to cope.
Despairing comforters, from age to age
Sowing the seeds of hope:
Gracious deceivers, who have lifted us
Out of the slough where passed our unknown youth.
Beneficent liars, who have gifted us
With sacred love of truth!
Farewell to them: yet pause ere thou unmoor
And set thine ark adrift on unknown seas;
How wert thou bettered so, or more secure
Thou, and thy destinies?
And if thou searchest, and art made to fear
Facing of unread riddles dark and hard,
And mastering not their majesty austere,
Their meaning locked and barred:
How would it make the weight and wonder less,
If, lifted from immortal shoulders down,
The worlds were cast on seas of emptiness
In realms without a crown.
And (if there were no God) were left to rue
Dominion of the air and of the fire?
Then if there be a God, "Let God be true,
And every man a liar."
But as for me, I do not speak as one
That is exempt: I am with life at feud:
My heart reproacheth me, as there were none
Of so small gratitude.
Wherewith shall I console thee, heart o' mine.
And still thy yearning and resolve thy doubt?
That which I know, and that which I divine,
Alas! have left thee out.
I have aspired to know the might of God,
As if the story of His love was furled,
Nor sacred foot the grasses e'er had trod
Of this redeemèd world:—
Have sunk my thoughts as lead into the deep,
To grope for that abyss whence evil grew,
And spirits of ill, with eyes that cannot weep,
Hungry and desolate flew;
As if their legions did not one day crowd
The death-pangs of the Conquering Good to see!
As if a sacred head had never bowed
In death for man—for me;
Nor ransomed back the souls beloved, the sons
Of men, from thraldom with the nether kings
In that dark country where those evil ones
Trail their unhallowed wings.
And didst Thou love the race that loved not Thee,
And didst Thou take to heaven a human brow?
Dost plead with man's voice by the marvellous sea?
Art Thou his kinsman now?
O God, O kinsman loved, but not enough!
O man, with eyes majestic after death,
Whose feet have toiled along our pathways rough,
Whose lips drawn human breath!
By that one likeness which is ours and Thine,
By that one nature which doth hold us kin,
By that high heaven where, sinless, Thou dost shine
To draw us sinners in,
By Thy last silence in the judgment-hall,
By long foreknowledge of the deadly tree,
By darkness, by the wormwood and the gall,
I pray Thee visit me.
Come, lest this heart should, cold and cast away,
Die ere the guest adored she entertain—
Lest eyes which never saw Thine earthly day
Should miss Thy heavenly reign.
Come, weary-eyed from seeking in the night
Thy wanderers strayed upon the pathless wold,
Who wounded, dying, cry to Thee for light,
And cannot find their fold.
And deign, O Watcher, with the sleepless brow,
Pathetic in its yearning—deign reply:
Is there, O is there aught that such as Thou
Wouldst take from such as I?
Are there no briers across Thy pathway thrust?
Are there no thorns that compass it about?
Nor any stones that Thou wilt deign to trust
My hands to gather out?
O if Thou wilt, and if such bliss might be,
It were a cure for doubt, regret, delay—
Let my lost pathway go—what aileth me?—
There is a better way.
What though unmarked the happy workman toil,
And break unthanked of man the stubborn clod?
It is enough, for sacred is the soil,
Dear are the hills of God.
Far better in its place the lowliest bird
Should sing aright to Him the lowliest song,
Than that a seraph strayed should take the word
And sing His glory wrong.
Friend, it is time to work. I say to thee,
Thou dost all earthly good by much excel;
Thou and God's blessing are enough for me:
My work, my work—farewell!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF EGEG XHCH EEEE IJIJ KLKL MGMX NENX OPOP QRQR PEPS TUTU KVKV WEWP XYXY Z1 Z1 E2 S2 3 L3 L PXPX 4 G4 M 5 6 5 6 P7 P7 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (96%) |
Metre | 01110010111 1111111111 0101001111 100111 10111101 11011110011 0101011101 110111 11111111 0111011011 1111011101 101100 011101111 1010110101 01001110001 110101 1111010101 1101010101 0101111100 010101 0110110111 01010101010 1111011111 01001010 1111111111 1101111111 11111101 11110 111101111 0111000111 1111011101 011111 1101110111 1101011111 11010101011 110111 1111110101 1111011101 01011111101 1001001 1111011111 01110100111 1101011101 011111 111010101 111110101 0111011101 1111 0111011111 01111100101 111111011 11111 111111101 1111010101 1111011011 111101 11110111001 1111011111 1111011111 111100 1111000101 11110101 110101001 111101 1111110101 110101101 1111011101 1111001 1101110001 1100101011 1101011111 010111 0111010101 0100110101 1111111111 111111 111101111 1111110101 1101111111 111101 1111011111 1001110101 11111111 110101 1101010101 011110101 1101110101 110111 110011011 11111011 110111101 011101 1111111111 1111011101 1011010111 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,068 |
Words | 707 |
Sentences | 33 |
Stanzas | 24 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 96 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 122 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted by Madeleine Quinn on September 18, 2016
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:32 min read
- 66 Views
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"Honours - Part2 conclusion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/45163/honours---part2-conclusion>.
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