Analysis of Parables
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 1826 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) – 1887 (Shortlands, London)
WE clutch our joys as children do their flowers;
We look at them, but scarce believe them ours,
Till our hot palms have smirched their colors rare
And crushed their dewy beauty unaware.
But the wise Gardener, whose they were, comes by
At hours when we expect not, and with eye
Mournful yet sweet, compassionate though stern,
Takes them.
Then in a moment we discern
By loss, what was possession, and, half-wild
With misery, cry out like angry child:
'O cruel! thus to snatch my posy fine!'
He answers tenderly, 'Not thine, but mine,'
And points to those stained fingers which do prove
Our fatal cherishing, our dangerous love;
At which we, chidden, a pale silence keep;
Yet evermore must weep, and weep, and weep.
So on through gloomy ways and thorny brakes,
Quiet and slow, our shrinking feet he takes
Let by the soilèd hand, which, laved in tears,
More and more clean beneath his sight appears.
At length the heavy eyes with patience shine--
'I am content. Thou took'st but what was thine.'
And then he us his beauteous garden shows,
Where bountiful the Rose of Sharon grows:'
Where in the breezes opening spice-buds swell,
And the pomegranates yield a pleasant smell:
While to and fro peace-sandalled angels move
In the pure air that they--not we--call Love:
An air so rare and fine, our grosser breath
Cannot inhale till purified by death.
And thus we, struck with longing joy, adore,
And, satisfied, wait mute without the door,
Until the gracious Gardener maketh sign,
'Enter in peace. All this is mine--and thine.'
Scheme | AABBCCDXDEEFFGHIIJJXXFF KKLLGHMMNNFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111011101110 11111101110 11011111101 011101001 10110011011 11011011011 1011010011 11 10010101 1111010011 1100111101 110111111 1101001111 0111110111 1010100101001 111101101 110110101 1111010101 10011010111 1101111101 1011011101 1101011101 11101111111 011111101 1100011101 10010100111 00110101 110111101 0011111111 11110110101 100111011 0111110101 010110101 0101010011 1001111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,528 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 23, 12 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 592 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 132 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 88 Views
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"Parables" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8052/parables>.
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