Analysis of The Field of Glory
Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869 – 1935
War shook the land where Levi dwelt,
And fired the dismal wrath he felt,
That such a doom was ever wrought
As his, to toil while others fought;
To toil, to dream -- and still to dream,
With one day barren as another;
To consummate, as it would seem
The dry despair of his old mother.
Far off one afternoon began
The sound of man destroying man;
And Levi. sick with nameless rage,
Condemned again his heritage,
And sighed for scars that might have come,
And would, if once he could have sundered
Those harsh, inhering claims of home
That held him while he cursed and wondered.
Another day, and then there came,
Rough, bloody, ribald, hungry, lame,
But yet themselves, to Levi's door,
Two remnants of the day before.
They laughed at him and what he sought;
They jeered him, and his painful acre;
But Levi knew that they had fought,
And left their manners to their Maker.
That night, for the grim widow's ears,
With hopes that hid themselves in fears,
He told of arms, and featly deeds,
Whereat one leaps the while he reads,
And said he'd be no more a clown,
While others drew the breath of battle.
The mother looked him up and down,
And laughed -- a scant laught with a rattle.
She told him what she found to tell,
And Levi listened, and heard well
Some admonitions of a voice
That left him no cause to rejoice.
He sought a friend, and found the stars,
And prayed aloud that they should aid him;
But they said not a word of wars,
Or of reason why God made him.
And who's of this or that estate
We do not wholly calculate,
When baffling shades that shift and cling
Are not without their glimmering;
When even Levi, tired of faith,
Beloved of none, forgot by many,
Dismissed as an inferior wraith,
Reborn may be as great as any.
Scheme | AABBCDCD EEXXXAXX FFGGBDBD HHIIJKJK LLMMXNXN OOPPQRQR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 010010111 11011101 11111101 11110111 111101010 11001111 010111110 1110101 01110101 01011101 01011100 01111111 01111111 111111 111111010 01010111 11010101 11011101 11010101 11110111 111011010 11011111 011101110 11101101 11110101 1111011 1110111 01111101 110101110 01011101 010111010 11111111 01010011 1010101 11111101 11010101 010111111 11110111 11101111 01111101 1111010 110011101 11011100 110101011 011101110 011101001 111111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,732 |
Words | 325 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 223 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 95 Views
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