Analysis of To Be Born at the Perinatal Dawn, or Lay Still the Soul



Once upon a dream, stirred a cosmic dawn,
Hallowed in darkness, divinely we came,
As in birth and of death, journeys the same,
Through darkened vales, drawn towards chaliced hands,
From out of the whirling roulette, laid calm,
Where time found the Eden child, hallowed sweet,
But a voice stirs ever haunting to ask;
Shall they fall awake at the ninth month dawn,
Beyond the whisperings that stoked their Souls,
Beyond the bliss of their Edenic home,
Readying them for a kiss to the world,
In sweet cries cradled in their mother's arms,
Or upon their tearful eyes, shall they close,
And lay still the Soul, back to sleep again,
Ceasing their cries, and to Heaven their tears,
Drawn from the beauty of a swollen womb,
And lay sorrow and joy in sweet repose,
By the dust of a Perinatal tomb,
Through darkened vales, into the Potter's hands,
Where the Angels shall quiet the raquiem,
And they shall weep no more, shall weep no more.


Scheme ABBCDEFAGHIJKLMNONCBP
Poetic Form
Metre 1010110101 1001001011 1010111001 110110111 1110100111 1110101101 1011101011 1110110111 01011111 01011111 1001101101 011101101 1011101111 0110111101 1011011011 1101010101 0110010101 1011011 1101010101 101011001 0111111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 911
Words 165
Sentences 1
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 21
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 730
Words per stanza (avg) 165
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Submitted by jlamarhill on April 04, 2020

Modified on March 20, 2023

50 sec read
88

Dr. James Lamar Hill

Founder of the House of Twi and former coordinator for research and policy development at Georgia's Division of Mental Health. He also taught chess, life skills and creative writing at charter schools and after school programs in Atlanta. He holds a doctorate in Public Administration, a Master of Science in Administration and a Bachelor of Social Work. more…

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