Kayla Zoe / 1941006

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine (yours) ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,

I yield (give) my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace(find) the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn (morning) shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

This poem tells us about God’s love that is endless. The speaker experienced so much suffering
that he cannot handle it on his own, that’s why he come to God. The speaker finds calmness in
God’s love. It can be concluded from this poem that the theme is : “One’s suffering may be
healed by God’s unending love”.

From the first stanza, it says :

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O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine (yours) ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

The first stanza of the poem tells us the persona’s feeling of gratitude and thankfulness of
God’s love. The first episode states, “O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee;”
which indicates that the speaker can depends all his life in God because God’s love will never
leave him. The persona uses the word “wilt” as to emphasize that God’s love will never leave
him. The persona uses the words “will not let me go” instead of “will not leave me” perhaps
because it implies that no matter what happens, God will not abandon us, His love will always be
there for us, and this diction is perhaps to differentiate between human’s ‘love’ and God’s love,
because human’s love is temporary, while God’s love is not. The second line indicates that the
persona is going through a difficult situation, to the point that it made him suffers, it can be seen
from the diction of “weary soul” instead of “tired”. The persona is not able to depend on other
people nor himself, however he is able to rest assure when he comes to God
The second episode states, “I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its
flow / may richer, fuller be.” Which indicates the persona’s feeling of comfort when he come to
God. The first line tells us that the persona is willing to dedicates his life to God, because his life
is God’s possession in the first place, that’s why he use the word “owe”, to show that the life that
he had is only temporary. Following the first line, the second and third line describes that in
God’s love alone he will found happiness. The poet represent God’s love using the words “ocean
depths” because the ocean is vast and endless, just like God’s love. The third line describes that
everything that flows within “the ocean” will be richer and fuller. This implies the meaning that
if we depends our life in God’s love (the ocean), it will be richer and fuller. The poet uses the
word “richer” and “fuller” as to explain that we will find joy that is greater than the joy that we
find from ourselves or other people.
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The second stanza states,

O light that followest all my way,
I yield (give) my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray (glim),
That in thy sunshine’s blaze (flame) its day
May brighter, fairer be.

The second stanza quite similar to the first stanza, which tell us the persona’s feeling of
gratitude toward God’s love, but this time, using a different representation. On the first episode,
it was said “O light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to thee;” The “light” in
this episode is something that keep the persona moving to the right way, sourced from God. Like
in the first stanza, the “light” that is provided by God to the persona is something that is really
precious, that’s why in the second line the persona said “I yield my flickering torch to thee;”
which indicates that the persona wanted to repay all of what God has given to him, perhaps that’s
why the poet uses the word “yield” instead of “give”. The poet uses the word “flickering torch”
as a representation of a passionate soul that is willing to do everything for God, as flickering is
defined as “shining with a light that is sometimes bright and sometimes weak:” (Cambridge
Dictionary). This also perhaps a representation of the “light” that the persona possess (as a
human) is imperfect, as it’s sometimes really bright but sometimes really weak as well.
However, despite all of those imperfections, the persona still willing to give all that he had to
God.
The second episode states “My heart restores its borrowed ray, that in thy sunshine’s
blaze its day / may brighter, fairer be.” This episode still connected with the previous episode. As
we can see on the first line, that it is true that the “light” that is in the persona’s possession was
temporarily given by God (from the word “borrowed ray”), and the source was much more
greater light, that is “sunshine’s blaze”. Perhaps the poet uses the word “ray” instead of “light” as
to differentiate between God and human’ possession. Once again, like in the first stanza, the final
line is written in the similar structure, which is “may brighter, fairer be.”
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The third stanza states :

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace(find) the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn (morning) shall tearless be.

The third stanza tells us about God’s greatness, how God’s love could heal a suffering
soul. In this stanza, there is a representation like in the previous two stanzas that is related to the
nature. The first episode states, “O joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to
thee;” from this episode, the persona perhaps wanted to tell us that even though he’s in the
middle of a painful feeling, he still able to find joy because God is with him. In the first line, the
poet uses the words “joy that seekest me through pain”, as to deliver a positive message that even
though the persona felt an unbearable painful feeling, there is joy inside it. It’s as if God
intentionally make the speaker go through the painful experience to find joy inside tough times.
Because after all, God will never make us suffers something that is beyond our control. That’s
why the speaker said “I cannot close my heart to thee”. Perhaps if he didn’t go through all the
painful feeling, he won’t realize how great God’s love is.
In the second episode, it was said “I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the
promise is not vain, that morn shall tearless be.” This episode shows the persona’s realization,
the kind of comfort that he was searching for. The first line is connected to the first episode,
which said “O joy that seekest me through pain”. But this time, the poet uses the word “rainbow”
to represent happiness and “rain” to represent the persona’s painful experience. Perhaps the
persona uses rainbow and rain as a representation because from rain (that refers to a negative
feeling) we are able to see a beautiful rainbow, just like how God use painful experience so that
the persona is able to find a greater happiness through it. Following the first episode, the second
episode states “and feel the promise is not vain, that morn shall tearless be.” In the first line, the
“promise” refers to God’s promise that the persona will be able to find joy inside his painful
experience, and it proves it. The poet uses the word “vain” as it was connected to the promise. In
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the last line, it refers to the similar thing, that the persona will find happiness and won’t be crying
again in the morning for he had been comforted by God and find strength in God alone.

The fourth stanza states :

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

In the first episode, which said “O cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from
thee;” this tells us that God’s cross that indicates Jesus’s suffering because of His love for us is
able to lift the persona’s head, perhaps the poet use the words “liftest up my head” as to tell us
that the persona’s head always looking down, there’s no joy in his life. However, God’s love is
able to lift up the persona’s head. The second line describes how the persona is not able to walk
away from God.
The second episode states “I lay in dust life’s glory dead, and from the ground there
blossoms red / life that shall endless be” The first line, it describes how in the real world the
persona lay in the life that is almost ‘dead’. Perhaps this refers to the background why this hymn
was created, that is because he felt a great suffering in his sister’s wedding day, because it made
him remember that his fiancée left him when she knew that he began to go blind. There was no
one beside him on his sister’s wedding day, he’s now alone, suffering the painful feelings. Like
in the first line of the second episode, it’s as if he was lay in dust, as if he was dead. However,
following the first line, the second line states that from the ground there blossoms red. A hope.
Perhaps the poet uses the words “blossoms red” to symbolizes deep love and courage. This refers
to God’s unending love, that even in the darkest times, God is able to offer a feeling of
gratefulness to the persona. Maybe there’s no one beside him, but God won’t leave him.

This poem uses various dictions that is using the old English version, it can be seen from
the diction “wilt”, “Thy”. “Thine”, “seekest”, “morn”, “liftest”, and “thee”. This kind of diction
can be found in bible, and I think that explains why the author decided to use old English,
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because this is considered a hymn. Another reason is to emphasize that the words were addressed
to God.
The speaker also uses the dictions like “ocean depths”, “flickering torch”, “sunshine’s blaze” as
to expressed God’s love. Perhaps the author use dictions that is related to nature as to expressed
God’s almighty and explain that God’s love is different from the “love” that humans understand.
Thus, it can be concluded that the theme of this poem is “One’s suffering may be healed
with God’s unending love”.
Based on the information about the author of this hymn in the internet, it was told that the
author wrote the lyrics of this hymn when he felt a great suffering. Even though it was uncertain
what ‘suffering’ that he felt, but most likely it’s because his fiancée left him because she couldn’t
live with a blind man (the author). It must be really hard for the author at that time. Being blind,
and left by one of his most precious person. However, God will never leave him, his love is
unending, as stated on the first line “O love that wilt not let me go”. The author find comfort in
God’s love, the kind of feeling that he won’t be able to get from humans.

In this hymn, it includes some sound elements. Firstly, the rhyme scheme of this hymn is
ABAAB - CBCCB- DBDDB – EBEEB. The sound long i (i:) dominated the hymn, probably the
reason is because the author wanted to give a calm feeling, as per stanza there’s always a
different sound but inside the stanza, on the second line and the last line it always ended in long i
(i:).
In the first stanza, there is an initial alliteration, which is located on the first line, which is
“o love that wilt not let me go,” because of the ‘l’ sound at the beginning of the words “love” and
“let”.
In the second stanza, the initial alliteration is located on the second line, which is “I yield
my flickering torch to Thee” because of the ‘t’ sound at the beginning of the words “torch” and
“to”. Other than that, the initial alliteration also occurred on the fifth line, which is “may
brighter, fairer be” because of the ‘b’ sound at the beginning of the words “brighter” and “be”.
In the third stanza, the initial alliteration is located on the second line, which is “I cannot
close my heart to Thee” because of the ‘k’ sound at the beginning of the words “cannot” and
“close”. On the third line, which said “I trace the rainbow through the rain” there occurred an
alliteration because of the ‘r’ sound at the beginning of the words “rainbow” and “rain”.
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In the fourth stanza, the initial alliteration is located on the second line, which is “I dare
not ask to fly from Thee” because of the ‘f’ sound at the beginning of the words “fly” and
“from”. The initial alliteration occurred in the third line as well, which is “I lay in dust life’s
glory dead” because of the ‘l’ sound at the beginning of the words “lay” and “life’s”.
It can be concluded that the alliteration occurred mostly on the second and third line each
stanza, which shows that alliteration played quite an important part in the hymn. Perhaps it
means that the poet wanted to give us a pleasant feeling and to put more emotion into the hymn.

Aside from alliteration, there is also Assonance in this poem. In the first stanza, the
internal assonance is occurred on the fourth line, which is “that in Thine ocean depths its flew”
because of the ‘ə’ sound on the words “ocean” and “flew”.
In the second stanza, the initial assonance occurred on the four line, which is “that in Thy
sunshine’s blaze it’s day” because of the ‘short i’ sound in the words “in” and “its”.
In the third stanza, the internal assonance occurred on the third line, which is “I trace the
rainbow through the rain” because of the diphthong ‘eɪ’ sound in the words “trace”, “rainbow”,
and “rain”. Other than that, there is also internal assonance on the fourth line, which is “and feel
the promise is not vain” because of the word ‘short ɒ’ sound in the words “promise” and “not”.
In the fourth stanza, the internal assonance occurred on the second line, which is “I dare
not ask to fly from Thee” because of the ‘short ɒ’ sound in the words “not” and “from”. Other
than that, the internal assonance also occurred in line 4, which is “and from the ground there
blossoms red” because of the ‘short ɒ’ sound in the words “from” and “blossoms”. On the last
line, the internal assonance occurred which is “life that shall endless be” because of the
diphthong “æ” sound in the words “that” and “shall”.
It can be concluded that the poet didn’t use any initial assonance at all, he only used
internal assonance in this hymn, and the total is not as many as the alliteration.
This hymn uses euphony. The hymn uses a lot of /l/, /m/, /n/, and /r/ consonant sound,
which is considered as “the liquids” in euphony. For example, the word “love”, “will”, “not”,
“let”, “me”, “rest”, “my”, “weary”, “soul”, “in”, “life”, “in”, “Thine”, “ocean”, “flew”, “may”,
“richer”, “fuller” in the first stanza. Just by looking it from the first stanza, the euphonious sound
dominated the stanza. Perhaps the reason the poet uses euphonious sound is because he wanted
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to express a pleasant feeling and calmness because the main content of this hymn is about God’s
love.

This hymn includes several end rhyme, and it follows some kind of structure at each
stanza, as the rhyme at the two successive lines occurred at line 3 and 4, for example in the first
stanza, there occurred the end rhyme in the word “owe” and “flow”, the word “ray” and “day” in
the second stanza, the word “rain” and “vain” in the third stanza, and the word “dead” and “red”
in the fourth stanza. Perhaps the reason the poet uses end rhyme structurally is so that it will
sound more pleasing to hear, especially because this is a hymn that was supposed to be sang.