Analysis of A Reverie ["Those hearts of ours -- how strange! how strange!"]
Abram Joseph Ryan 1839 (Hagerstown) – 1886 (Louisville)
Those hearts of ours -- how strange! how strange!
How they yearn to ramble and love to range
Down through the vales of the years long gone,
Up through the future that fast rolls on.
To-days are dull -- so they wend their ways
Back to their beautiful yesterdays;
The present is blank -- so they wing their flight
To future to-morrows where all seems bright.
Build them a bright and beautiful home,
They'll soon grow weary and want to roam;
Find them a spot without sorrow or pain,
They may stay a day, but they're off again.
Those hearts of ours -- how wild! how wild!
They're as hard to tame as an Indian child;
They're as restless as waves on the sounding sea,
Like the breeze and the bird are they fickle and free.
Those hearts of ours -- how lone! how lone!
Ever, forever, they mourn and moan;
Let them revel in joy, let them riot in cheer;
The revelry o'er, they're all the more drear.
Those hearts of ours -- how warm! how warm!
Like the sun's bright rays, like the Summer's charm;
How they beam and burn! how they gleam and glow
Their flash and flame hide but ashes below.
Those hearts of ours -- how cold! how cold!
Like December's snow on the waste or wold;
And though our Decembers melt soon into May,
Hearts know Decembers that pass not away.
Those hearts of ours -- how deep! how deep!
You may sound the sea where the corals sleep,
Where never a billow hath rumbled or rolled --
Depths still the deeper our hearts hide and hold.
Where the wild storm's tramp hath ne'er been known
The wrecks of the sea lie low and lone;
Thus the heart's surface may sparkle and glow,
There are wrecks far down -- there are graves below.
Those hearts of ours -- but, after all,
How shallow and narrow, how tiny and small;
Like scantiest streamlet or Summer's least rill,
They're as easy to empty -- as easy to fill.
One hour of storm and how the streams pour!
One hour of sun and the streams are no more;
One little grief -- how the tears gush and glide!
One smile -- flow they ever so fast, they are dried.
Those hearts of ours -- how wise! how wise!
They can lift their thoughts till they touch the skies;
They can sink their shafts, like a miner bold,
Where wisdom's mines hide their pearls and gold.
Aloft they soar with undazzled gaze,
Where the halls of the Day-King burn and blaze;
Or they fly with a wing that will never fail,
O'er the sky's dark sea where the star-ships sail.
Those hearts of ours -- what fools! what fools!
How they laugh at wisdom, her cant and rules!
How they waste their powers, and, when wasted, grieve
For what they have squandered, but cannot retrieve.
Those hearts of ours -- how strong! how strong!
Let a thousand sorrows around them throng,
They can bear them all, and a thousand more,
And they're stronger then than they were before.
Those hearts of ours -- how weak! how weak!
But a single word of unkindness speak,
Like a poisoned shaft, like a viper's fang,
That one slight word leaves a life-long pang.
Those hearts of ours -- but I've said enough,
As I find that my rhyme grows rude and rough;
I'll rest me now, but I'll come again
Some other day, to resume my strain.
Scheme | AAXX BBCC DDEF GGHH IIJJ XXKK LLMM NNLL IIKK OOPP QQRR SSLL BBTT UUVV WWQQ XXYY ZZFE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (76%) |
Metre | 111101111 1111100111 110110111 110101111 111111111 11110010 0101111111 110111111 110101001 111100111 1101011011 1110111101 111101111 11111111001 11101110101 101001111001 111101111 100101101 111001111001 01001011011 111101111 1011110101 1110111101 1101111001 111101111 1010110111 0110111011 11111101 111101111 1110110101 11001011011 11010101101 101111111 011011101 1011011001 1111111101 111101101 11001011001 11111011 111011011011 1101101011 11011001111 1101101101 11111011111 111101111 1111111101 1111110101 11111101 0111111 1011011101 11110111101 10011110111 111101111 1111100101 11111001101 11111011001 111101111 1010100111 1111100101 0110111001 111101111 10101111 101011011 111110111 1111011101 1111111101 111111101 110110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,084 |
Words | 602 |
Sentences | 41 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 68 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 139 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:07 min read
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"A Reverie ["Those hearts of ours -- how strange! how strange!"]" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54623/a-reverie-%5B%22those-hearts-of-ours----how-strange%21-how-strange%21%22%5D>.
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