Analysis of Stonewall Jackson (Ascribed To A Virginian)
One man we claim of wrought reknown
Which not the North shall care to slur;
A Modern lived who sleeps in death,
Calm as the marble Ancients are:
'Tis he whose life, though a vapor's wreath,
Was charged with the lightning's burning breath -
Stonewall, stormer of the war.
But who shall hymn the Roman heart?
A stoic he, but even more:
The iron will and lion thew
Were strong to inflict as to endure:
Who like him could stand, or pursue?
His fate the fatalist followed through;
In all his great soul found to do
Stonewall followed his star.
He followed his star on the Romney march
Through the sleet to the wintry war;
And he followed it on when he bowed the grain -
The Wind of the Shenandoah;
At Gaines's Mill in the giants' strain -
On the fierce forced stride to Manassas-plain,
Where his sword with thunder was clothed again,
Stonewall followed his star.
His star he followed athwart the flood
To Potomac's Northern shore,
When midway wading, his host of braves
'My Maryland!' loud did roar -
To red Antietam's field of graves,
Through mountain-passes, woods, and waves,
They followed their pagod with hymns and glaives,
For Stonewall followed a star.
Back it led him to Marye's slope,
Where the shock and the fame he bore;
And to green Moss-Neck it guided him -
Brief respite from throes of war:
To the laurel glade by the Wilderness grim,
Through climxed victory naught shall dim,
Even unto death it piloted him -
Stonewall followed his star.
Its lead he followed in gentle ways
Which never the valiant mar;
A cap we sent him. bestarred, to replace
The sun-scorched helm of war:
A fillet he made of the shining lace
Childhood's laughing brow to grace -
Not his was a goldsmith's star.
O, much of doubt in after days
Shall cling, as now, to the war;
Of the right and the wrong they'll still debate,
Puzzled by Stonewall's star:
'Fortune went with the North elate,'
'Ay, but the South had Stonewall's weight,
And he fell in the South's great war.'
Scheme | axbcxbd xdexeeeC xdaxaaaC xdfdfffc xdgdgggC hcidiic hdjcjjd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111 11011111 01011101 11010101 11111011 11101101 110101 11110101 01011101 01010101 011011101 11111101 110100101 01111111 11011 1101110101 10110101 01101111101 0110010 11100101 1011110101 1111101101 11011 111100101 11101 11101111 1100111 111111 11010101 110111101 111001 1111111 10100111 011111101 1101111 10101101001 11100111 1010111001 11011 111100101 1100101 01111111 011111 0011110101 110111 111011 11110101 1111101 1010011101 10111 10110101 1101111 01100111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,906 |
Words | 358 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 53 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 217 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 80 Views
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"Stonewall Jackson (Ascribed To A Virginian)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19102/stonewall-jackson-%28ascribed-to-a-virginian%29>.
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