Analysis of The Ghost Of Roger Casement
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
O WHAT has made that sudden noise?
What on the threshold stands?
It never crossed the sea because
John Bull and the sea are friends;
But this is not the old sea
Nor this the old seashore.
What gave that roar of mockery,
That roar in the sea's roar?
The ghost of Roger Casement
Is beating on the door.
John Bull has stood for Parliament,
A dog must have his day,
The country thinks no end of him,
For he knows how to say,
At a beanfeast or a banquet,
That all must hang their trust
Upon the British Empire,
Upon the Church of Christ.
The ghost of Roger Casement
Is beating on the door.
John Bull has gone to India
And all must pay him heed,
For histories are there to prove
That none of another breed
Has had a like inheritance,
Or sucked such milk as he,
And there's no luck about a house
If it lack honesty.
The ghost of Roger Casement
Is beating on the door.
I poked about a village church
And found his family tomb
And copied out what I could read
In that religious gloom;
Found many a famous man there;
But fame and virtue rot.
Draw round, beloved and bitter men,
Draw round and raise a shout;
The ghost of Roger Casement
Is beating on the door.
Scheme | xxxxababCB ccxxccxcCB ccxcxaxaCB xdcdxcxcCB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 11111101 11011 11010101 1100111 1111011 11011 11111100 110011 011101 110101 11111100 011111 01011111 111111 1011010 111111 01010100 010111 011101 110101 11111100 011111 11001111 1110101 11010100 111111 01110101 111100 011101 110101 11010101 0111001 01011111 010101 11001011 110101 11010101 110101 011101 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,118 |
Words | 227 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 224 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 62 Views
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