Analysis of The Dark Night of the Soul
In a dark night,
With anxious love inflamed,
O, happy lot!
Forth unobserved I went,
My house being now at rest.
In darkness and in safety,
By the secret ladder, disguised,
O, happy lot!
In darkness and concealment,
My house being now at rest.
In that happy night,
In secret, seen of none,
Seeing nought myself,
Without other light or guide
Save that which in my heart was burning.
That light guided me
More surely than the noonday sun
To the place where He was waiting for me,
Whom I knew well,
And where none appeared.
O, guiding night;
O, night more lovely than the dawn;
O, night that hast united
The lover with His beloved,
And changed her into her love.
On my flowery bosom,
Kept whole for Him alone,
There He reposed and slept;
And I cherished Him, and the waving
Of the cedars fanned Him.
As His hair floated in the breeze
That from the turret blew,
He struck me on the neck
With His gentle hand,
And all sensation left me.
I continued in oblivion lost,
My head was resting on my love;
Lost to all things and myself,
And, amid the lilies forgotten,
Threw all my cares away.
Scheme | axBxC dxBxC aefxg dedxx axxxh xxxgx xxxxd xhfex |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 0011 110101 1101 1111 1110111 0100010 10101001 1101 0100010 1110111 01101 010111 1011 0110111 111011110 11101 1101011 1011111011 1111 01101 1101 11110101 1111010 0101101 0100101 1110010 111101 11101 011010010 101011 11110001 110101 111101 11101 0101011 1010001001 11110111 111101 001010010 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,136 |
Words | 273 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 105 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
About this poem
TRANSLATED BY DAVID LEWIS
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Written on 1577
Submitted by Drone232 on June 25, 2022
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 19 Views
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"The Dark Night of the Soul" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/130633/the-dark-night-of-the-soul>.
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