Analysis of The Stone
Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1906 (Englewood) – 2001 (Passumpsic)
There is a core of suffering that the mind
Can never penetrate or even find;
A stone that clogs the stream of my delight,
Hidden beneath the surface out of sight,
Below the flow of words it lies concealed,
It blocks my passage and it will not yield
To hammer blows of will, and still resists
The surgeon's scalpel of analysis.
Too hard for tears and too opaque for light,
Bright shafts of prayer splinter against its might.
Beauty cannot disguise nor music melt
A pain undiagnosable [sic] but felt.
No sleep dissolves that stony stalagmite
Mounting within the unconscious caves of night.
No solvent left but love. Whose love? My own?
And is one asked to love the harsh unknown?
I am no Francis who could kiss the lip
Of alien leper. Caught within the grip
Of world un-faith [sic], I cannot even pray,
And must I love? Is there no other way?
Suffering without name or tongue or face,
Blindly I crush you in my dark embrace!
Scheme | AABBCCXXBBDD AB EEFFGG HH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011100101 110101101 0111011101 1001010111 0101111101 1111001111 1101110101 0101010100 1111010111 1111100111 1010011101 011111 11011101 1001010111 1101111111 0111110101 1111011101 11001010101 11111110101 0111111101 1000111111 1011101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 901 |
Words | 169 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 2, 6, 2 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 183 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on April 16, 2019
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 93 Views
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