Analysis of Tegner's Drapa
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Heard a voice, that cried,
"Balder the Beautiful
Is dead, is dead!"
And through the misty air
Passed like the mournful cry
Of sunward sailing cranes.
I saw the pallid corpse
Of the dead sun
Borne through the Northern sky.
Blasts from Niffelheim
Lifted the sheeted mists
Around him as he passed.
And the voice forever cried,
"Balder the Beautiful
Is dead, is dead!"
And died away
Through the dreary night,
In accents of despair.
Balder the Beautiful,
God of the summer sun,
Fairest of all the Gods!
Light from his forehead beamed,
Runes were upon his tongue,
As on the warrior's sword.
All things in earth and air
Bound were by magic spell
Never to do him harm;
Even the plants and stones;
All save the mistletoe,
The sacred mistletoe!
Hoeder, the blind old God,
Whose feet are shod with silence,
Pierced through that gentle breast
With his sharp spear, by fraud,
Made of the mistletoe!
The accursed mistletoe!
They laid him in his ship,
With horse and harness,
As on a funeral pyre.
Odin placed
A ring upon his finger,
And whispered in his ear.
They launched the burning ship!
It floated far away
Over the misty sea,
Till like the sun it seemed,
Sinking beneath the waves.
Balder returned no more!
So perish the old Gods!
But out of the sea of Time
Rises a new land of song,
Fairer than the old.
Over its meadows green
Walk the young bards and sing.
Build it again,
O ye bards,
Fairer than before;
Ye fathers of the new race,
Feed upon morning dew,
Sing the new Song of Love!
The law of force is dead!
The law of love prevails!
Thor, the thunderer,
Shall rule the earth no more,
No more, with threats,
Challenge the meek Christ.
Sing no more,
O ye bards of the North,
Of Vikings and of Jarls!
Of the days of Eld
Preserve the freedom only,
Not the deeds of blood!
Scheme | aBCdef xgehxx aBCixd Bgjkxx dxhxll xxxxll mxnxnx miokxp jhxxxx xfpxxx cxdpxx pxfaox |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111 100100 1111 010101 110101 110101 110101 1011 110101 111 10011 011111 0010101 100100 1111 0101 10101 010101 100100 110101 101101 111101 100111 11011 110101 101101 101111 100101 11010 01010 10111 1111110 111101 111111 11010 0110 111011 11010 11010010 101 0101110 010011 110101 110101 100101 110111 100101 100111 110011 1110111 1001111 10101 10111 101101 1101 111 10101 1101011 101101 101111 011111 011101 101 110111 1111 10011 111 111101 110011 10111 0101010 10111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,740 |
Words | 331 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 114 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 1:39 min read
- 243 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Tegner's Drapa" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18810/tegner%27s-drapa>.
Discuss this Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In