Analysis of Insurrections

James Stephens 1882 (Dublin) – 1950



I saw God. Do you doubt it?
Do you dare to doubt it?
I saw the Almighty Man. His hand
Was resting on a mountain, and
He looked upon the World and all about it:
I saw Him plainer than you see me now,
You mustn't doubt it.
He was not satisfied;
His look was all dissatisfied.
His beard swung on a wind far out of sight
Behind the world's curve, and there was light
Most fearful from His forehead, and He sighed,
'That star went always wrong, and from the start
I was dissatisfied.'
He lifted up His hand-
I say He heaved a dreadful hand
Over the spinning Earth, then I said 'Stay,
You must not strike it, God; I'm in the way;
And I will never move from where I stand.'
He said, 'Dear child, I feared that you were dead,'
And stayed His hand.


Scheme AABCADAEEFFEGEBBHHBIB
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111 111111 110010111 11010100 11010101011 1111011111 11011 11110 1111010 1111011111 010110111 1101110011 111110101 11010 110111 11110101 1001011111 1111111001 0111011111 1111111101 0111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 727
Words 153
Sentences 10
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 21
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 557
Words per stanza (avg) 148
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 23, 2023

45 sec read
33

James Stephens

James Stephens was an Irish Republican and the founding member of an originally unnamed revolutionary organisation in Dublin on 17 March 1858, later to become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, also referred to as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by contemporaries. more…

All James Stephens poems | James Stephens Books

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