Analysis of To The Sinking Sun

Francis Thompson 1859 (City of Preston, Lancashire) – 1907 (London)



How graciously thou wear'st the yoke
Of use that does not fail!
The grasses, like an anchored smoke,
Ride in the bending gale;
This knoll is snowed with blosmy manna,
And fire-dropt as a seraph's mail.

Here every eve thou stretchest out
Untarnishable wing,
And marvellously bring'st about
Newly an olden thing;
Nor ever through like-ordered heaven
Moves largely thy grave progressing.

Here every eve thou goest down
Behind the self-same hill,
Nor ever twice alike go'st down
Behind the self-same hill;
Nor like-ways is one flame-sopped flower
Possessed with glory past its will.

Not twice alike! I am not blind,
My sight is live to see;
And yet I do complain of thy
Weary variety.
O Sun! I ask thee less or more,
Change not at all, or utterly!

O give me unprevisioned new,
Or give to change reprieve!
For new in me is olden too,
That I for sameness grieve.
O flowers! O grasses! be but once
The grass and flower of yester-eve!

Wonder and sadness are the lot
Of change: thou yield'st mine eyes
Grief of vicissitude, but not
Its penetrant surprise.
Immutability mutable
Burthens my spirit and the skies.

O altered joy, all joyed of yore,
Plodding in unconned ways!
O grief grieved out, and yet once more
A dull, new, staled amaze!
I dream, and all was dreamed before,
Or dream I so? the dreamer says.


Scheme ababxb cdcdxd eFeFxf xgxghg ijijxj klklxl hmhmhx
Poetic Form
Metre 110011101 111111 01011101 100101 11111110 01011011 11001111 11 011101 101101 110111010 11011010 11001111 010111 110101111 010111 111111110 01110111 11011111 111111 01110111 100100 11111111 11111100 11111 111101 11011101 111101 110110111 01010111 10010101 1111111 1110011 1101 1100 1110001 11011111 10011 11110111 011101 11011101 11110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,265
Words 233
Sentences 20
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 42
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 145
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:11 min read
83

Francis Thompson

The Rt Rev Francis William Banahene Thompson was Bishop of Accra from 1983 to 1996. more…

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