Analysis of The Bird
Henry Vaughan 1621 (Brecknockshire) – 1695
Hither thou com'st: the busy wind all night
Blew through thy lodging, where thy own warm wing
Thy pillow was. Many a sullen storm
(For which coarse man seems much the fitter born)
Rained on thy bed
And harmless head.
And now, as fresh and cheerful as the light,
Thy little heart in early hymns doth sing
Unto that Providence, whose unseen arm
Curbed them, and clothed thee well and warm.
All things that be, praise Him, and had
Their lesson taught them when first made.
So hills and valleys into singing break;
And though poor stones have neither speech nor tongue,
While active winds and streams both run and speak,
Yet stones are deep in admiration.
Thus praise and prayer here beneath the sun
Make lesser mornings, when the great are done.
For each inclosed spirit is a star
Enlight'ning his own little sphere,
Whose light, though fetched and borrowed from far,
Both mornings makes and evenings there.
But as these birds of light make a land glad,
Chirping their solemn matins on each tree,
So in the shades of night some dark fowls be,
Whose heavy notes make all that hear them sad.
The turtle then in palm trees mourns,
While owls and satyrs howl:
The pleasant land to brimstone turns,
And all her streams grow foul.
Brightness and mirth, and love and faith, all fly,
Till the day-spring breaks forth again from high.
Scheme | ABCXDD ABXCEX XXXFFF GXGX EHHE XIXI JJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111010111 1111011111 1101100101 1111110101 1111 0101 0111010101 1101010111 1011001011 11011101 11111101 11011111 1101001101 0111110111 1101011101 11110010 110110101 1101010111 11110101 111101 11110111 11010101 1111111011 101101111 1001111111 1101111111 01010111 11011 01011101 010111 1001010111 1011110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,299 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 2 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 150 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 126 Views
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"The Bird" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18441/the-bird>.
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