Analysis of Before a Statue of Achilles
George Santayana 1863 (Madrid) – 1952 (Rome)
Behoild Pelides with his yellow hair,
Proud child of Thetis, hero loved of Jove;
Above the frowning of his brows of wove
A crown of gold, well combed, with Spartan care.
Who might have seen him, sullen, great, and fair,
As with the wrongful world he proudly strove,
And by high deeds his wilder passion shrove,
Mastering love, resentment, and despair.
He knew his end, and Phoebus' arrow sure
He braved for fame immortal and a friend,
Despising life; and we, who know our end,
Know that in our decay he shall endure
And all our children's hearts to grief inure,
With whose first bitter battles his shall blend.
Who brought thee forth, immortal vision, who
In Phthia or in Tempe brought thee forth?
Out of the sunlight and the sapful earth
What god the simples of thy spirit drew?
A goddess rose from the green waves, and threw
Her arms about a king, to give thee birth;
A centaur, patron of thy boyish mirth,
Over the meadows in thy footsteps flew.
Now Thessaly forgets thee, and the deep
Thy keeled bark furrowed answers not thy prayer;
But far away new generations keep
Thy laurels fresh; where branching Isis hems
The lawns of Oxford round about, or where
Enchanted Eton sits by pleasant Thames.
I gaze on thee as Phidias of old
Or Polyclitus gazed, when first he saw
These hard and shining limbs, without a flaw,
And cast his wonder in heroic mould.
Unhappy me who only may behold,
Nor make immutable and fix in awe
A fair immortal form no worm shall gnaw,
A tempered mind whose faith was never told!
The godlike mien, the lion's lock and eye,
The well-knit sinew, utter a brave heart
Better than many words that part by part
Spell in strange symbols what serene and whole
In nature lives, nor can in marble die.
The perfect body itself the soul.
Scheme | ABBAABBACDDCCD EXFEEFFEGAGHAH IJJIIXJIKLLMKM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111101 1111010111 0101011111 0111111101 1111110101 1101011101 0111110101 1001010001 1111010101 1111010001 01010111101 11010011101 01101011101 1111010111 1111010101 011010111 11010011 110111101 0101101101 0101011111 011011101 10010111 11011001 1111010111 110110101 1101110101 0111010111 0101011101 11111111 1111111 1101010101 0111000101 0101110101 1101000101 0101011111 0101111101 011010101 011110011 1011011111 1011010101 0101110101 001100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,795 |
Words | 323 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 14, 14 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 460 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 106 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 41 Views
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