Analysis of Out Of Siberia
Katharine Lee Bates 1859 (Falmouth) – 1929 (Wellesley)
SHAKERAGS, cripples, gaunt and dazed,
Prison-broken hosts on hosts,
Torture-scarred and dungeon-crazed,
Down the convict road they pour,
More and more and myriads more,
Terrible as ghosts.
Shuffling feet that miss the chain,
Shoulders welted, faces hoar,
Sightless eyes that stare in vain,
Writhen limbs and idiot tongue—
They are old who were so young
When they passed before.
Grimy from the mines, a stain
And a horror on the white
Sweep of the Siberian plain,
These, grotesque and piteous, these
Fill the earth with jubilees,
Flood the skies with light.
While each squalid tatter spins
At the sport of wind and snow,
Russia hails her paladins,
And with cheer or sob proclaims
Long unspoken hero names,
Names they hardly know.
They unto themselves are vague,
Even as they tear the bread
That their famished fingers beg;
They themselves are specters, who
Melt into their retinue
Of unnumbered dead.
From the shackles, from the whips,
Over frozen steppes they stream,
Quavering songs on ghastly lips,
Haggard, holy caravan,
Saviours of the soul of man,
Martyrs of a dream;
Martyrs of a dream fulfilled,
Givers who have paid the price,
Homing now to hearths long chilled,
Guests exalted over all
At glad Freedom's festival,
Saints of sacrifice.
Scheme | ABACCBDCDEECDFDGBFHIBJJIKLMNNLOPOQQPRSRTUS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101 1010111 1010101 1010111 101011 10011 1011101 101101 111101 1101001 1111011 11101 1010101 0010101 11001001 101011 10111 10111 1110101 1011101 10101 0111101 1010101 11101 1100111 1011101 1110101 101111 101110 111 1010101 1010111 10011101 101010 110111 10101 1010101 1011101 1011111 1010101 1110100 1110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,212 |
Words | 208 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 42 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 993 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 206 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 26 Views
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"Out Of Siberia" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24887/out-of-siberia>.
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