Analysis of The Lost Statesman
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
AS they who, tossing midst the storm at night,
While turning shoreward, where a beacon shone,
Meet the walled blackness of the heaven alone,
So, on the turbulent waves of party tossed,
In gloom and tempest, men have seen thy light
Quenched in the darkness. At thy hour of noon,
While life was pleasant to thy undimmed sight,
And, day by day, within thy spirit grew
A holier hope than young Ambition knew,
As through thy rural quiet, not in vain,
Pierced the sharp thrill of Freedom's cry of pain,
Man of the millions, thou art lost too soon!
Portents at which the bravest stand aghast, —
The birth-throes of a Future, strange and vast,
Alarm the land; yet thou, so wise and strong,
Suddenly summoned to the burial bed,
Lapped in its slumbers deep and ever long,
Hear'st not the tumult surging overhead.
Who now shall rally Freedom's scattering host?
Who wear the mantle of the leader lost?
Who stay the march of slavery? He whose voice
Hath called thee from thy task-field shall not lack
Yet bolder champions, to beat bravely back
The wrong which, through his poor ones, reaches Him:
Yet firmer hands shall Freedom's torchlights trim,
And wave them high across the abysmal black,
Till bound, dumb millions there shall see them and rejoice.
Scheme | ABBCADAEEFFDGGHIHIJCKLLMMLK |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111 1101010101 10110101001 11010011101 0101011111 10010111011 111101111 0111011101 01001110101 1111010101 1011110111 1101011111 111010101 0111010101 0101111101 10010101001 101110101 11101010101 11110101001 1101010101 11011100111 1111111111 11010011101 0111111101 110111011 01110100101 111101111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,223 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 27 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 976 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 218 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 124 Views
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"The Lost Statesman" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23137/the-lost-statesman>.
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