Analysis of The Feud
Frederick George Scott 1861 (Montreal, Quebec) – 1944 (Quebec City, Quebec)
I hear a cry from the Sansard cave,
O mother, will no one hearken?
A cry of the lost, will no one save?
A cry of the dead, though the oceans rave,
And the scream of a gull as he wheels o'er a grave,
While the shadows darken and darken.'
'Oh, hush thee, child, for the night is wet,
And the cloud-caves split asunder,
With lightning in a jagged fret,
Like the gleam of a salmon in the net,
When the rocks are rich in the red sunset,
And the stream rolls down in thunder.'
'Mother, O mother, a pain at my heart,
A pang like the pang of dying.'
'Oh, hush thee, child, for the wild birds dart
Up and down, and close and part,
Wheeling round where the black cliffs start,
And the foam at their feet is flying.'
'O mother, a strife like the black clouds'
And a peace that cometh after.'
'Hush, child, for peace is the end of life,
And the heart of a maiden finds peace as a wife,
But the sky and the cliffs and the ocean are rife
With the storm and thunder's laughter.'
'Come in, my sons, come in and rest,
For the shadows darken and darken,
And your sister is pale as the white swan's breast,
And her eyes are fixed and her lips are pressed
In the death of a name ye might have guessed,
Had ye twain been here to hearken.'
'Hush, mother, a corpse lies on the sand,
And the spray is round it driven,
It lies on its face, and one white hand
Points through the mist on the belt of strand
To where the cliffs of Sansard stand,
And the ocean's strength is riven.'
'Was it God, my sons, who laid him there?
Or the sea that left him sleeping?'
'Nay, mother, our dirks where his heart was bare,
As swift as the rain through the teeth of the air;
And the foam-fingers play in the Saxon's hair,
While the tides are round him creeping.'
'Oh, curses on you, hand and head,
Like the rains in this wild weather
The guilt of blood is swift and dread,
Your sister's face is cold and dead,
Ye may not part whom God would wed
And love hath knit together.'
Scheme | ABAAAB CDCCCD EFEEEF XDGGGD HBHHHB IBIIIB JFJJJF KDKKKD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011011 1101111 011011111 0110110101 0011011111001 10110010 111110111 00111010 1100011 1011010001 101110011 00111010 1011001111 01101110 111110111 1010101 10110111 001111110 110011011 00111010 111110111 001101011101 101001001011 1010110 10111001 10110010 01101110111 0011100111 0011011111 1111111 110011101 00111110 111110111 110110111 1101111 00101110 111111111 10111110 11010111111 11101101101 00110100101 10111110 11011101 10101110 01111101 11011101 11111111 0111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,893 |
Words | 395 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 182 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 02, 2023
- 1:57 min read
- 32 Views
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"The Feud" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14256/the-feud>.
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