Analysis of The Mayflowers
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Sad Mayflower! watched by winter stars,
And nursed by winter gales,
With petals of the sleeted spars,
And leaves of frozen sails!
What had she in those dreary hours,
Within her ice-rimmed bay,
In common with the wild-wood flowers,
The first sweet smiles of May?
Yet, 'God be praised!' the Pilgrim said,
Who saw the blossoms peer
Above the brown leaves, dry and dead,
'Behold our Mayflower here!'
'God wills it: here our rest shall be,
Our years of wandering o'er;
For us the Mayflower of the sea
Shall spread her sails no more.'
O sacred flowers of faith and hope,
As sweetly now as then
Ye bloom on many a birchen slope,
In many a pine-dark glen.
Behind the sea-wall's rugged length,
Unchanged, your leaves unfold,
Like love behind the manly strength
Of the brave hearts of old.
So live the fathers in their sons,
Their sturdy faith be ours,
And ours the love that overruns
Its rocky strength with flowers!
The Pilgrim's wild and wintry day
Its shadow round us draws;
The Mayflower of his stormy bay,
Our Freedom's struggling cause.
But warmer suns erelong shall bring
To life the frozen sod;
And through dead leaves of hope shall spring
Afresh the flowers of God!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EXEX FXFX GHGH IJIJ KCKC DXDX LMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 11011101 011101 1101011 011101 111011010 010111 010101110 011111 11110101 110101 01011101 0110101 111110111 101110010 11010101 110111 110101101 110111 11110011 0100111 01011101 011101 11010101 101111 11010011 1101110 01001110 1101110 01010101 11111 01011101 10101001 1101111 110101 01111111 0101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,138 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 101 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 126 Views
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"The Mayflowers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23141/the-mayflowers>.
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