Analysis of Within the Alamo
Karle Wilson Baker 1878 (Little Rock) – 1960
He drew a straight line
Across the dirt floor:
Within, it was death-still--
Without, was a roar
And a scream of the trumpets:
Within, was a Word--
And a line drawn clean
By the sweep of a sword.
No help was coming, now--
That hope was done.
No more the free air,
no more the sun
Bright on the blue leagues
Of buffalo-clover.
Travis drew a line
And they all crossed over.
Travis had a wife at home,
Travis was young;
Travis had a little boy
Whose tight arms clung,
But Travis saw a far light
Shining before:
Travis drew a sword-cut
Across the dirt floor.
And now the old fort stands
Placid and dim,
Blinking and dreaming
Of them and of him;
And now past the Plaza
Other tides roar,
since Travis wrote "Valor"
Across the sand floor,
And the guns they will rust,
And the captains will go,
And an end come at last
To the wars that we know,
But as long as there travails
A Spirit in man,
In a war that was ancient
Before Time began,
Here will the brave come
To read a high Word--
Cut clean in the dust
By the stroke of a sword.
Scheme | aBxbxcxdxexexfafxgxgxbxB xhxhxbfbijxjxkxkxcid |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011 01011 011111 01101 0011010 01101 00111 101101 111101 1111 11011 1101 11011 11010 10101 011110 1010111 1011 1010101 1111 1101011 1001 101011 01011 010111 1001 10010 11011 011010 1011 110110 01011 001111 001011 011111 101111 1111101 01001 0011110 01101 11011 11011 11001 101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 987 |
Words | 204 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 24, 20 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 391 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 101 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 30, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 118 Views
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"Within the Alamo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24839/within-the-alamo>.
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