Analysis of The Tree Of Life
Broad daylight, with a sense of weariness!
Mine eyes were closed, but I was not asleep,
My hand was in my father's, and I felt
His presence near me. Thus we often past
In silence, hour by hour. What was the need
Of interchanging words when every thought
That in our hearts arose, was known to each,
And every pulse kept time? Suddenly there shone
A strange light, and the scene as sudden changed.
I was awake:--It was an open plain
Illimitable,--stretching, stretching--oh, so far!
And o'er it that strange light,--a glorious light
Like that the stars shed over fields of snow
In a clear, cloudless, frosty winter night,
Only intenser in its brilliance calm.
And in the midst of that vast plain, I saw,
For I was wide awake,--it was no dream,
A tree with spreading branches and with leaves
Of divers kinds,--dead silver and live gold,
Shimmering in radiance that no words may tell!
Beside the tree an Angel stood; he plucked
A few small sprays, and bound them round my head.
Oh, the delicious touch of those strange leaves!
No longer throbbed my brows, no more I felt
The fever in my limbs--"And oh," I cried,
"Bind too my father's forehead with these leaves."
One leaf the Angel took and therewith touched
His forehead, and then gently whispered "Nay!"
Never, oh never had I seen a face
More beautiful than that Angel's, or more full
Of holy pity and of love divine.
Wondering I looked awhile,--then, all at once
Opened my tear-dimmed eyes--When lo! the light
Was gone--the light as of the stars when snow
Lies deep upon the ground. No more, no more,
Was seen the Angel's face. I only found
My father watching patient by my bed,
And holding in his own, close-prest, my hand.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLMLNOPQRSTUQCVQWXYZ1 2 LM3 4 U5 |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111011100 1101111101 1110110011 1101111101 010101101101 11111001 10101011111 010011110011 0110011101 1101111101 11010111 010111101001 1101110111 0011010101 10101101 0001111111 1111011111 0111010011 1101110011 100010011111 0101110111 0111011111 1001011111 1101111111 0100110111 1111010111 110101011 1100110101 1011011101 1100111111 1101001101 10011011111 1011111101 1101110111 1101011111 110111101 1101010111 0100111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,816 |
Words | 312 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 38 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,312 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 300 |
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"The Tree Of Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54371/the-tree-of-life>.
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