Analysis of A Blind Singer.
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey 1835 (Cleveland) – 1905
In covert of a leafy porch,
Where woodbine clings,
And roses drop their crimson leaves,
He sits and sings;
With soft brown crest erect to hear,
And drooping wings.
Shut in a narrow cage, which bars
His eager flight,
Shut in the darker prison-house
Of blinded sight,
Alike to him are sun and stars,
The day, the night.
But all the fervor of high noon,
Hushed, fragrant, strong,
And all the peace of moonlit nights
When nights are long,
And all the bliss of summer eves,
Breathe in his song.
The rustle of the fresh green woods,
The hum of bee,
The joy of flight, the perfumed waft
Of blossoming tree,
The half-forgotten, rapturous thrill
Of liberty,--
All blend and mix, while evermore,
Now and again,
A plaintive, puzzled cadence comes,
A low refrain,
Caught from some shadowy memory
Of patient pain.
In midnight black, when all men sleep,
My singer wakes,
And pipes his lovely melodies,
And trills and shakes.
The dark sky bends to listen, but
No answer makes.
O, what is joy? In vain we grasp
Her purple wings;
Unwon, unwooed, she flits to dwell
With humble things;
She shares my sightless singer's cage,
And so--he sings.
Scheme | XABAXA CDXDCD XEXEBE XFXFXF XXXGFG XHXHXH XAXAXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010101 111 01011101 1101 11110111 0101 10010111 1101 10010101 1101 01111101 0101 11010111 1101 0101111 1111 01011101 1011 01010111 0111 01110011 11001 010101001 1100 1101110 1001 01010101 0101 111100100 1101 0111111 1101 01110100 0101 01111101 1101 11110111 0101 111111 1101 1111101 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,101 |
Words | 207 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 124 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 11 Views
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"A Blind Singer." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56677/a-blind-singer.>.
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