Analysis of Our River
FOR A SUMMER FESTIVAL AT 'THE LAURELS' ON THE MERRIMAC.
Once more on yonder laurelled height
The summer flowers have budded;
Once more with summer's golden light
The vales of home are flooded;
And once more, by the grace of Him
Of every good the Giver,
We sing upon its wooded rim
The praises of our river,
Its pines above, its waves below,
The west-wind down it blowing,
As fair as when the young Brissot
Beheld it seaward flowing,--
And bore its memory o'er the deep,
To soothe a martyr's sadness,
And fresco, hi his troubled sleep,
His prison-walls with gladness.
We know the world is rich with streams
Renowned in song and story,
Whose music murmurs through our dreams
Of human love and glory
We know that Arno's banks are fair,
And Rhine has castled shadows,
And, poet-tuned, the Doon and Ayr
Go singing down their meadows.
But while, unpictured and unsung
By painter or by poet,
Our river waits the tuneful tongue
And cunning hand to show it,--
We only know the fond skies lean
Above it, warm with blessing,
And the sweet soul of our Undine
Awakes to our caressing.
No fickle sun-god holds the flocks
That graze its shores in keeping;
No icy kiss of Dian mocks
The youth beside it sleeping
Our Christian river loveth most
The beautiful and human;
The heathen streams of Naiads boast,
But ours of man and woman.
The miner in his cabin hears
The ripple we are hearing;
It whispers soft to homesick ears
Around the settler's clearing
In Sacramento's vales of corn,
Or Santee's bloom of cotton,
Our river by its valley-born
Was never yet forgotten.
The drum rolls loud, the bugle fills
The summer air with clangor;
The war-storm shakes the solid hills
Beneath its tread of anger;
Young eyes that last year smiled in ours
Now point the rifle's barrel,
And hands then stained with fruits and flowers
Bear redder stains of quarrel.
But blue skies smile, and flowers bloom on,
And rivers still keep flowing,
The dear God still his rain and sun
On good and ill bestowing.
His pine-trees whisper, 'Trust and wait!'
His flowers are prophesying
That all we dread of change or fate
His live is underlying.
And thou, O Mountain-born!--no more
We ask the wise Allotter
Than for the firmness of thy shore,
The calmness of thy water,
The cheerful lights that overlay,
Thy rugged slopes with beauty,
To match our spirits to our day
And make a joy of duty.
Scheme | A BBBXCDCD XEBEFGFG HIHIXJXJ KXKXLELE MEMENONO XEXEPOPO QDQDRSRS XEOETATE UDUDVIVI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010100101010100 1111011 0101011 11110101 0111110 01110111 11001010 11011101 01011010 11011101 0111110 1111011 111010 0111001001 110110 01011101 110111 11011111 0101010 110101101 1101010 1111111 01111 01010101 110111 111001 1101110 101010101 0101111 11010111 0111110 00111101 1110010 11011101 1111010 11011101 0101110 10101011 0100010 0101111 11011010 01001101 0101110 1101111 010110 0010111 111110 101011101 1101010 01110101 010111 01110101 0111110 111111010 110110 011111010 1101110 111101011 0101110 01111101 1101010 11110101 11011 11111111 111010 01110111 11011 11010111 0101110 0101110 1101110 1110101101 0101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,279 |
Words | 425 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 73 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 185 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:09 min read
- 136 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Our River" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23006/our-river>.
Discuss this John Greenleaf Whittier 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