Analysis of An Indian Mother About to Destroy Her Child
James Montgomery 1771 (Irvine) – 1854
Awhile she lay all passive to the touch
Of those small fingers, and the soft, soft lips
Soliciting the sweet nutrition thence,
While yearning sympathy crept round her heart,
She felt her spirit yielding to the charm,
That wakes the parent in the fellest bosom,
And binds her to her little one for ever,
If once completed - but she broke - she broke it.
For she was brooding o'er her sex's wrongs,
And seem'd to lie among a nest of scorpions,
That stung remorse to frenzy: - forth she sprung,
And with collected might a moment stood,
Mercy and misery struggling in her thoughts,
Yet both impelling her to one dire purpose.
There was a little grave already made,
But two spans long, in the turf floor beside her,
By him who was the father of that child;
Thence he had sallied when the work was done,
To hunt, to fish, to ramble on the hills,
Till all was peace again within that dwelling,
His haunt, - his den, - his anything but home!
Peace? no - till the new-comer was despatch'd.
Whence it should ne'er return, to break the stupor
Of unawaken'd conscience in himself.
She pluck'd the baby from her flowing breast,
And o'er its mouth, yet moist with nature's beverage,
Bound a white lotus-leaf to still its cries;
Then laid it down in that untimely grave,
As tenderly as though 'twere rock'd to sleep
With songs of love, and afraid to wake it;
Soon as she felt it touch the ground she started,
Hurried the damp earth over it; then fell
Flat on the heaving heap, and crush'd it down
With the whole burden of her grief, exclaiming,
'Oh, that my mother had done so to me!'
Then in a swoon forgot, a little while,
Her child, her sex, her tyrant, and herself.
Scheme | XXXAXXBC XXXXXXXBXXXDXABE XXXXXCXXXDXXE |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111110101 1111000111 0100010101 1101001101 1101010101 1101000110 01010101110 11010111111 1111010011 011101011100 1101110111 0101010101 100100100001 111011110 1101010101 11110011010 1111010111 111110111 1111110101 11110101110 111111011 111011011 11110111010 1110001 1101010101 0101111110100 1011011111 1111010101 1100111111 1111001111 11111101110 1001110111 1101010111 10110101010 1111011111 1001010101 0101010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,628 |
Words | 310 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 16, 13 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 425 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 102 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 27, 2023
- 1:36 min read
- 79 Views
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"An Indian Mother About to Destroy Her Child" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20443/an-indian-mother-about-to-destroy-her-child>.
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