Analysis of Morning Song Of Senlin

Conrad Potter Aiken 1889 (Savannah, Georgia) – 1973 (Savannah, Georgia)



It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet
Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
Vine leaves tap my window,
Dew-drops sing to the garden stones,
The robin chips in the chinaberry tree
Repeating three clear tones.
It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And tie my tie once more.
While waves far off in a pale rose twilight
Crash on a white sand shore.
I stand by a mirror and comb my hair:
How small and white my face!—
The green earth tilts through a sphere of air
And bathes in a flame of space.
There are houses hanging above the stars
And stars hung under a sea. . .
And a sun far off in a shell of silence
Dapples my walls for me. . .
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
Should I not pause in the light to remember God?
Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable,
He is immense and lonely as a cloud.
I will dedicate this moment before my mirror
To him alone, and for him I will comb my hair.
Accept these humble offerings, cloud of silence!
I will think of you as I descend the stair.
Vine leaves tap my window,
The snail-track shines on the stones,
Dew-drops flash from the chinaberry tree
Repeating two clear tones.
It is morning, I awake from a bed of silence,
Shining I rise from the starless waters of sleep.
The walls are about me still as in the evening,
I am the same, and the same name still I keep.
The earth revolves with me, yet makes no motion,
The stars pale silently in a coral sky.
In a whistling void I stand before my mirror,
Unconcerned, I tie my tie.
There are horses neighing on far-off hills
Tossing their long white manes,
And mountains flash in the rose-white dusk,
Their shoulders black with rains. . .
It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And surprise my soul once more;
The blue air rushes above my ceiling,
There are suns beneath my floor. . .
. . . It is morning, Senlin says, I ascend from darkness
And depart on the winds of space for I know not where,
My watch is wound, a key is in my pocket,
And the sky is darkened as I descend the stair.
There are shadows across the windows, clouds in heaven,
And a god among the stars; and I will go
Thinking of him as I might think of daybreak
And humming a tune I know. . .
Vine-leaves tap at the window,
Dew-drops sing to the garden stones,
The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree
Repeating three clear tones.


Scheme AbcbdefeGHiHJklkmnmnoipiAqrsjmpmGhihptatuejevwxwJkakymfmugzggHiH
Poetic Form
Metre 11101100010 10111010101 1011101 0101110111 1001010101 1001010111 01110101010 101010111 111110 11110101 01010011 010111 1110111010 011111 111100111 110111 1110100111 110111 011110111 0100111 1110100101 0111001 00111001110 11111 11101100010 111100110101 010111101010 1101010101 111011001110 110101111111 011101001110 11111110101 111110 0111101 1111011 010111 1110101101110 10111011011 011011110010 11010011111 01011111110 01110000101 001011101110 011111 111011111 101111 010100111 110111 1110111010 0011111 0111001110 1110111 111011101110 0011011111111 11110110110 001110110101 111010101010 00101010111 1011111111 0100111 1111010 11110101 01010011 010111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,564
Words 492
Sentences 40
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 64
Lines Amount 64
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,969
Words per stanza (avg) 502
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

2:27 min read
656

Conrad Potter Aiken

Conrad Potter Aiken was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author born in Savannah Georgia whose work includes poetry short stories novels and an autobiography more…

All Conrad Potter Aiken poems | Conrad Potter Aiken Books

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