Analysis of Babel
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton 1808 (Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Sheridan London) – 1877 (London)
KNOW ye in ages past that tower
By human hands built strong and high?
Arch over arch, with magic power,
Rose proudly each successive hour,
To reach the happy sky.
It rose, till human pride was crushed--
Quick came the unexpected change;
A moment every tone was hushed,
And then again they freely gushed,
But sounded wild and strange.
Loud, quick, and clear, each voice was heard,
Calling for lime, and stone, and wood,
All uttered words--but not one word;
More than the carol of a bird,
Their fellows understood.
Is there no Babel but that one,
The storied tower of other days?--
Where, round the giant pile of stone,
Pausing they stood--their labour done,
To listen in amaze.
Fair springs the tower of hope and fame,
When all our life is fairy land;
Till, scarcely knowing what to blame,
Our fellows cease to feel the same--
We cease to understand.
Then, when they coldly smile to hear
The burning dreams of earlier days;
The rapid fall from hope to fear,
When eyes whose every glance was dear,
Seem changing as they gaze:
Then, when we feel 'twere vain to speak
Of fervent hopes--aspirings high--
Of thoughts for which all words are weak--
Of wild far dreams, wherein we seek
Knowledge of earth and sky:
Of communings with nature's God,
When impulse deep the soul hath moved--
Of tears which sink within the sod,
Where, mingling with the valley clod,
Lies something we have loved:
Then cometh ours;--and better theirs--
Of stranger tongues together brought,
Than that in which we all have shares,
A Babel in a world of cares--
Of feeling and of thought.
Scheme | ABAAB CDCCD EFEEF GHXGH IJIIJ XHKKH LBLLB MX MCX NONNO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101110 11011101 110111010 110101010 110101 11110111 1100101 010100111 01011101 110101 11011111 10110101 11011111 11010101 11001 11110111 010101101 11010111 1011111 110001 110101101 111011101 11010111 101011101 11101 11110111 010111001 01011111 111100111 110111 11111111 110111 11111111 11110111 101101 111101 11010111 11110101 110010101 110111 110100101 11010101 11011111 01000111 110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,554 |
Words | 279 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 2, 3, 5 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 213 Views
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"Babel" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4728/babel>.
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