Analysis of A Word for the Hour
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
The firmament breaks up. In black eclipse
Light after light goes out. One evil star,
Luridly glaring through the smoke of war,
As in the dream of the Apocalypse,
Drags others down. Let us not weakly weep
Nor rashly threaten. Give us grace to keep
Our faith and patience; wherefore should we leap
On one hand into fratricidal fight,
Or, on the other, yield eternal right,
Frame lies of laws, and good and ill confound?
What fear we? Safe on freedom's vantage ground
Our feet are planted; let us there remain
In unrevengeful calm, no means untried
Which truth can sanction, no just claim denied,
The sad spectators of a suicide!
They break the lines of Union: shall we light
The fires of hell to weld anew the chain
On that red anvil where each blow is pain?
Draw we not even now a freer breath,
As from our shoulders falls a load of death
Loathsome as that the Tuscan's victim bore
When keen with life to a dead horror bound?
Why take we up the accursed thing again?
Pity, forgive, but urge them back no more
Who, drunk with passion, flaunt disunion's rag
With its vile reptile blazon. Let us press
The golden cluster on our brave old flag
In closer union, and, if numbering less,
Brighter shall shine the stars which still remain.
Scheme | ABCADDDEEFFGHHHEGGIICFJCKLKLG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110101 1101111101 11010111 100110010 1101111101 111011111 1010101111 1110111 1101010101 1111010101 1111110101 10111011101 0111101 1111011101 011001010 1101110111 01011110101 1111011111 1111010101 11101010111 101101101 1111101101 111101101 1001111111 11110111 111101111 01010110111 01010011001 1011011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,210 |
Words | 227 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 29 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 969 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 225 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 127 Views
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