Analysis of Rantoul
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
One day, along the electric wire
His manly word for Freedom sped;
We came next morn: that tongue of fire
Said only, 'He who spake is dead!'
Dead! while his voice was living yet,
In echoes round the pillared dome!
Dead! while his blotted page lay wet
With themes of state and loves of home!
Dead! in that crowning grace of time,
That triumph of life's zenith hour!
Dead! while we watched his manhood's prime
Break from the slow bud into flower!
Dead! he so great, and strong, and wise,
While the mean thousands yet drew breath;
How deepened, through that dread surprise,
The mystery and the awe of death!
From the high place whereon our votes
Had borne him, clear, calm, earnest, fell
His first words, like the prelude notes
Of some great anthem yet to swell.
We seemed to see our flag unfurled,
Our champion waiting in his place
For the last battle of the world,
The Armageddon of the race.
Through him we hoped to speak the word
Which wins the freedom of a land;
And lift, for human right, the sword
Which dropped from Hampden's dying hand.
For he had sat at Sidney's feet,
And walked with Pym and Vane apart;
And, through the centuries, felt the beat
Of Freedom's march in Cromwell's heart.
He knew the paths the worthies held,
Where England's best and wisest trod;
And, lingering, drank the springs that welled
Beneath the touch of Milton's rod.
No wild enthusiast of the right,
Self-poised and clear, he showed alway
The coolness of his northern night,
The ripe repose of autumn's day.
His steps were slow, yet forward still
He pressed where others paused or failed;
The calm star clomb with constant will,
The restless meteor flashed and paled.
Skilled in its subtlest wile, he knew
And owned the higher ends of Law;
Still rose majestic on his view
The awful Shape the schoolman saw.
Her home the heart of God; her voice
The choral harmonies whereby
The stars, through all their spheres, rejoice,
The rhythmic rule of earth and sky.
We saw his great powers misapplied
To poor ambitions; yet, through all,
We saw him take the weaker side,
And right the wronged, and free the thrall.
Now, looking o'er the frozen North,
For one like him in word and act,
To call her old, free spirit forth,
And give her faith the life of fact,--
To break her party bonds of shame,
And labor with the zeal of him
To make the Democratic name
Of Liberty the synonyme,--
We sweep the land from hill to strand,
We seek the strong, the wise, the brave,
And, sad of heart, return to stand
In silence by a new-made grave!
There, where his breezy hills of home
Look out upon his sail-white seas,
The sounds of winds and waters come,
And shape themselves to words like these.
'Why, murmuring, mourn that he, whose power
Was lent to Party over-long,
Heard the still whisper at the hour
He set his foot on Party wrong?
'The human life that closed so well
No lapse of folly now can stain
The lips whence Freedom's protest fell
No meaner thought can now profane.
'Mightier than living voice his grave
That lofty protest utters o'er;
Through roaring wind and smiting wave
It speaks his hate of wrong once more.
'Men of the North! your weak regret
Is wasted here; arise and pay
To freedom and to him your debt,
By following where he led the way!'
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EAEA FGFG HIHI JKJK XLXL MNMN XOBO PQPR STST UVUV WXWX YZYZ 1 2 1 2 3 X3 D L4 L4 D5 X5 A6 A6 I7 I7 4 A4 X CRCQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (91%) |
Metre | 1101001010 11011101 111111110 11011111 11111101 01010101 11110111 11110111 10110111 110111010 1111111 110110110 11110101 10110111 11011101 010000111 10111101 11111101 1111011 11110111 111110101 1010010011 10110101 0010101 11111101 11010101 01110101 1111101 1111111 01110101 010100101 11010101 11010101 11010101 010010111 0101111 11010101 1101111 01011101 01011101 11011101 11110111 01111101 010100101 1011111 01010111 11010111 0101011 01011101 01010001 01111101 01011101 11111001 11010111 11110101 01010101 110100101 11110101 11011101 01010111 11010111 01010111 1100101 110001 11011111 11010101 01110111 01010111 11110111 11011111 01110101 01011111 1100111110 11110101 101101010 11111101 01011111 11110111 0111011 11011101 100110111 11011010 1101011 11111111 11011101 11010101 11001111 110011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,137 |
Words | 592 |
Sentences | 29 |
Stanzas | 22 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 114 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:00 min read
- 74 Views
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"Rantoul" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23019/rantoul>.
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