Analysis of The Unpardonable Sin
Vachel Lindsay 1879 (Springfield) – 1931 (Springfield)
This is the sin against the Holy Ghost: —
To speak of bloody power as right divine,
And call on God to guard each vile chief's house,
And for such chiefs, turn men to wolves and swine:—
To go forth killing in White Mercy's name,
Making the trenches stink with spattered brains,
Tearing the nerves and arteries apart,
Sowing with flesh the unreaped golden plains.
In any Church's name, to sack fair towns,
And turn each home into a screaming sty,
To make the little children fugitive,
And have their mothers for a quick death cry,—
This is the sin against the Holy Ghost:
This is the sin no purging can atone:—
To send forth rapine in the name of Christ:—
To set the face, and make the heart a stone.
Scheme | Abxb xcxc xdxd Aexe |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1101010101 11110101101 0111111111 0111111101 111100111 1001011101 1001010001 101101101 0101011111 0111010101 1101010100 0111010111 1101010101 1101110101 111100111 1101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 703 |
Words | 137 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 136 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 98 Views
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"The Unpardonable Sin" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37409/the-unpardonable-sin>.
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