Analysis of The Summons
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
MY ear is full of summer sounds,
Of summer sights my languid eye;
Beyond the dusty village bounds
I loiter in my daily rounds,
And in the noon-time shadows lie.
I hear the wild bee wind his horn,
The bird swings on the ripened wheat,
The long green lances of the corn
Are tilting in the winds of morn,
The locust shrills his song of heat.
Another sound my spirit hears,
A deeper sound that drowns them all;
A voice of pleading choked with tears,
The call of human hopes and fears,
The Macedonian cry to Paul!
The storm-bell rings, the trumpet blows;
I know the word and countersign;
Wherever Freedom's vanguard goes,
Where stand or fall her friends or foes,
I know the place that should be mine.
Shamed be the hands that idly fold,
And lips that woo the reed's accord,
When laggard Time the hour has tolled
For true with false and new with old
To fight the battles of the Lord!
O brothers! blest by partial Fate
With. power to match the will and deed,
To him your summons comes too late
Who sinks beneath his armor's weight,
And has no answer but God-speed!
Scheme | ABAABCDCCDEFGHFICIIJKLKKLMNMMN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (27%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11111101 11011101 01010101 11001101 0001111 11011111 01110101 0111101 11000111 01011111 01011101 01011111 01110111 01110101 0010111 01110101 110101 0101011 11110111 11011111 11011101 01110101 110101011 11110111 11010101 11011101 110110101 11110111 1101111 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,036 |
Words | 200 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 30 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 827 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 198 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 103 Views
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