19 pages • 38 minutes read
William CowperLight Shining Out of Darkness
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1773A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
Cowper’s poem divides neatly into six quatrains, or six groupings of four lines each. The neat division of these stanzas aligns with the verse structure of hymns, and also allows readers to easily follow along with the subject matter of the hymn as the content shifts from an admiration of the mystery of God and an address of God’s followers, to an acknowledgement of humans’ mental inferiority to comprehend God’s plan. The stanzaic structure provides a crisp division between the content shifts.
The meter of the hymn alternates between iambic tetrameter (Line 1: God moves in a mysterious way) in one line and iambic trimeter (Line 2: His wonders to perform) in the following line. An iamb is a poetic metrical unit consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. A tetrameter line contains four of these units, while a trimeter line features three units. This repetitive pattern creates a meter that is comfortable and predictable, like the familiar melody of a favorite song. This is fitting since the work was originally published in a collection of hymns. The sing-song rhythm of the lines makes the verses memorable and assist with the flow of the text.
The rhyme scheme assists in this rhythmic flow and “catchy” nature of the stanzas. The quatrains follow an abab pattern of masculine rhyme, which is rhyme of the final stressed syllable (“mines” and “designs” in Lines 5 & 7; “skill” and “will” in Lines 6 & 8). There are two instances where this rhyme scheme is slightly broken, specifically in Lines 1 & 3 with “way” and “sea” and in Lines 17 & 19 with “fast” and “taste.” However, these slant rhymes (also known as near rhymes) are not disruptive enough to interrupt the overall experience of the hymn.
Metaphor and Simile
There are numerous instances of metaphors in Cowper’s work. In Stanza 2, the speaker equates God with a sort of tradesman working in “unfathomable mines” (Line 5) of “neverending skill” (Line 6). Through his divine intercession, God “treasures up” (Line 7), or builds up, his “bright designs” (Line 7). He saves up all of his creations and plans for whatever he holds for the future so that he can enact his “sov’reign will” (Line 8). Referring to God in this manner, as a tradesman working with his hands, can help make him and his divine plans much more relatable to the audience. Other metaphors include referring to the hidden future God has in store as images of “clouds” (Line 10). In Stanza 5, the speaker parallels God’s “purposes” with plant imagery that “ripen” (Line 17). The metaphor continues throughout the entire stanza as God’s acts are referred to as “bud[s]” (Line 19) that initially appear “bitter” (Line 19) since they cannot be properly understood. Once the truth of God’s plans come to light, these sour and unhappy correlations “flow’r” (Line 20) and become “sweet” (Line 20). All of these metaphors assist in grounding these seemingly incomprehensible and unknowable ideas of God into something more physical and more easily grasped.
The sole simile in the hymn occurs in the final verse, where the speaker states, “God is his own interpreter” (Line 23). Stating that God is the one and only “person” who can explain why he does what he does removes the onus from humans to interpret every event, good and bad, that happens in their lifetime. Stating that God is the only one who can do this interpreting forces the audience to put their faith and trust in God instead.
Consonance and Assonance
Just as the rhyme scheme and the metrical units of the hymn assist with the rhythmic flow of the lines, so also does Cowper’s usage of consonance and assonance. Consonance is the repetition of similar consonant sounds in close proximity to one another. Examples of this consonance appear in the first line of the text: “God moves in a mysterious way.” The repetition of “m” sounds here define consonance. Another example of this is at the beginning of Stanza 5: “His purposes will ripen fast” (Line 17). Consonance does not always have to occur at the beginning of words. It can carry into the middle of words as well.
Conversely, assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. Occurrences of assonance appear in the repetition of the long “i” in Line 7 with “bright designs,” the long “a” sound in Line 9 with “saints” and “take,” and the repetition of the long “i” sound again in Line 16 with “hides” and “smiling.” The assonance and consonance Cowper employs in his hymn help to connect the lines together. These poetic devices assist in building the cohesion of each individual line, and unifies the stanzas as a whole, connecting everything seamlessly together as Cowper explains the ways in which God’s divine plan seamlessly coheres.
