The Sword of Suprise
Gilbert Keith Chesterton 1874 (Kensington, London) – 1936 (Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire)
Sunder me from my bones, O sword of God
Till they stand stark and strange as do the trees;
That I whose heart goes up with the soaring woods
May marvel as much at these.
Sunder me from my blood that in the dark
I hear that red ancestral river run
Like branching buried floods that find the sea
But never see the sun.
Give me miraculous eyes to see my eyes
Those rolling mirrors made alive in me
Terrible crystals more incredible
Than all the things they see
Sunder me from my soul, that I may see
The sins like streaming wounds, the life's brave beat
Till I shall save myself as I would save
A stranger in the street.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 56 Views
Quick analysis:
| Scheme | XAXA XBCB XCXC CDXD |
|---|---|
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 625 |
| Words | 123 |
| Stanzas | 4 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Sword of Suprise" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/16028/the-sword-of-suprise>.
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