Analysis of Yorktown
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
YORKTOWN.
FROM Yorktown's ruins, ranked and still,
Two lines stretch far o'er vale and hill:
Who curbs his steed at head of one?
Hark! the low murmur: Washington!
Who bends his keen, approving glance,
Where down the gorgeous line of France
Shine knightly star and plume of snow?
Thou too art victor, Rochambeau!
The earth which bears this calm array
Shook with the war-charge yesterday,
Ploughed deep with hurrying hoof and wheel,
Shot-sown and bladed thick with steel;
October's clear and noonday sun
Paled in the breath-smoke of the gun,
And down night's double blackness fell,
Like a dropped star, the blazing shell.
Now all is hushed: the gleaming lines
Stand moveless as the neighboring pines;
While through them, sullen, grim, and slow,
The conquered hosts of England go:
O'Hara's brow belies his dress,
Gay Tarleton's troop rides bannerless:
Shout, from thy fired and wasted homes,
Thy scourge, Virginia, captive comes!
Nor thou alone: with one glad voice
Let all thy sister States rejoice;
Let Freedom, in whatever clime
She waits with sleepless eye her time,
Shouting from cave and mountain wood
Make glad her desert solitude,
While they who hunt her quail with fear;
The New World's chain lies broken here!
But who are they, who, cowering, wait
Within the shattered fortress gate?
Dark tillers of Virginia's soil,
Classed with the battle's common spoil,
With household stuffs, and fowl, and swine,
With Indian weed and planters' wine,
With stolen beeves, and foraged corn, —
Are they not men, Virginian born?
Oh, veil your faces, young and brave!
Sleep, Scammel, in thy soldier grave!
Sons of the Northland, ye who set
Stout hearts against the bayonet,
And pressed with steady footfall near
The moated battery's blazing tier,
Turn your scarred faces from the sight,
Let shame do homage to the right!
Lo! fourscore years have passed; and where
The Gallic bugles stirred the air,
And, through breached batteries, side by side,
To victory stormed the hosts allied,
And brave foes grounded, pale with pain,
The arms they might not lift again,
As abject as in that old day
The slave still toils his life away.
Oh, fields still green and fresh in story,
Old days of pride, old names of glory,
Old marvels of the tongue and pen,
Old thoughts which stirred the hearts of men,
Ye spared the wrong; and over all
Behold the avenging shadow fall!
Your world-wide honor stained with shame, —
Your freedom's self a hollow name!
Where's now the flag of that old war?
Where flows its stripe? Where burns its star?
Bear witness, Palo Alto's day,
Dark Vale of Palms, red Monterey,
Where Mexic Freedom, young and weak,
Fleshes the Northern eagle's beak;
Symbol of terror and despair,
Of chains and slaves, go seek it there!
Laugh, Prussia, midst thy iron ranks!
Laugh, Russia, from thy Neva's banks!
Brave sport to see the fledgling born
Of freedom by its parent torn!
Safe now is Speilberg's dungeon cell,
Safe drear Siberia's frozen hell:
With Slavery's flag o'er both unrolled,
What of the New World fears the Old?
Scheme | ABBCCDDEFGGHHCCIIJJEEKDLMNNFFOPQRSSTTUUVVWWXXQRYYZZ1 1 2 3 GG4 4 3 3 5 5 FF6 7 GG8 8 ZZ9 9 VVIIO0 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 1110101 111110101 11111111 10110100 11110101 11010111 11010111 111101 01111101 1101110 111100101 11010111 0101011 10011101 01110101 10110101 11110101 11101001 11110101 01011101 01010111 11111 111100101 11010101 11011111 11110101 1100101 11110101 10110101 1101010 11110111 01111101 111111001 01010101 1110101 11010101 1110101 110010101 1101011 11110101 11110101 1101101 1101111 1101010 0111011 011101 11110101 11110101 1111101 01010101 011100111 110010101 01110111 01111101 11010111 01111101 111101010 111111110 11010101 11110111 11010101 01001011 11110111 11010101 11011111 11111111 1101011 1111101 1110101 1010101 10110001 11011111 11011101 1101111 11110101 11011101 1111101 111101 1111011 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,940 |
Words | 514 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 81 |
Lines Amount | 81 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,359 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 512 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 2:40 min read
- 115 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Yorktown" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23290/yorktown>.
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