Analysis of The Lark
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
From wrath-red dawn to wrath-red dawn,
The guns have brayed without abate;
And now the sick sun looks upon
The bleared, blood-boltered fields of hate
As if it loathed to rise again.
How strange the hush! Yet sudden, hark!
From yon down-trodden gold of grain,
The leaping rapture of a lark.
A fusillade of melody,
That sprays us from yon trench of sky;
A new amazing enemy
We cannot silence though we try;
A battery on radiant wings,
That from yon gap of golden fleece
Hurls at us hopes of such strange things
As joy and home and love and peace.
Pure heart of song! do you not know
That we are making earth a hell?
Or is it that you try to show
Life still is joy and all is well?
Brave little wings! Ah, not in vain
You beat into that bit of blue:
Lo! we who pant in war's red rain
Lift shining eyes, see Heaven too.
Scheme | XAXAXBCB DEDEFGFG HIHICJCJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 01110101 01011101 0111111 11111101 11011101 11110111 01010101 0101100 11111111 01010100 11010111 010011001 11111101 11111111 11010101 11111111 11110101 11111111 11110111 11011101 11011111 11110111 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 848 |
Words | 162 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 209 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 15, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 122 Views
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