Analysis of Babylon
Ralph Hodgson 1871 (Darlington) – 1962
If you could bring her glories back!
You gentle sirs who sift the dust
And burrow in the mould and must
Of Babylon for bric-a-brac;
Who catalogue and pigeon-hole
The faded splendours of her soul
And put her greatness under glass -
If you could bring her past to pass!
If you could bring her dead to life!
The soldier lad; the market wife;
Madam buying fowls from her;
Tip, the butcher's bandy cur;
Workmen carting bricks and clay;
Babel passing to and fro
On the business of a day
Gone three thousand years ago -
That you cannot; then be done,
Put the goblet down again,
Let the broken arch remain,
Leave the dead men's dust alone -
Is it nothing how she lies,
This old mother of you all,
You great cities proud and tall
Towering to a hundred skies
Round a world she never knew,
Is it nothing, this, to you?
Must the ghoulish work go on
Till her very floors are gone?
While there's still a brick to save
Drive these people from her grave!
The Jewish seer when he cried
Woe to Babel's lust and pride
Saw the foxes at her gates;
Once again the wild thing waits.
Then leave her in her last decay
A house of owls, a foxes' den;
The desert that till yesterday
Hid her from the eyes of men
In its proper time and way
Will take her to itself again.
Scheme | ABBACCDDEEFFGHGHIJKLMNNMOOPQRRSSTTGJGJGJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (28%) |
Metre | 11110101 11011101 01000101 1101101 1100101 0101101 01010101 11110111 11110111 01010101 1010110 1010101 1010101 1010101 1010101 1110101 1110111 1010101 1010101 1011101 1110111 1110111 1110101 10010101 1011101 1110111 1010111 1010111 1110111 1110101 0101111 111101 1010101 1010111 11000101 01110101 0101110 1010111 0110101 11010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,249 |
Words | 243 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 963 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 241 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 144 Views
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"Babylon" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29760/babylon>.
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