Analysis of Cassandra
I heard one who said: "Verily,
What word have I for children here?
Your Dollar is your only Word,
The wrath of it your only fear.
"You build it altars tall enough
To make you see but you are blind;
You cannot leave it long enough
To look before you or behind.
"When Reason beckons you to pause,
You laugh and say that you know best;
But what it is you know, you keep
As dark as ingots in a chest.
"You laugh and answer, 'We are young;
Oh, leave us now, and let us grow:'
Not asking how much more of this
Will Time endure or Fate bestow.
"Because a few complacent years
Have made your peril of your pride,
Think you that you are to go on
Forever pampered and untried?
"What lost eclipse of history,
What bivouac of the marching stars,
Has given the sign for you to see
Milleniums and last great wars?
"What unrecorded overthrow
Of all the world has ever known,
Or ever been, has made itself
So plain to you, and you alone?
"Your Dollar, Dove, and Eagle make
A Trinity that even you
Rate higher than you rate yourselves;
It pays, it flatters, and it's new.
"And though your very flesh and blood
Be what the Eagle eats and drinks,
You'll praise him for the best of birds,
Not knowing what the eagle thinks.
"The power is yours, but not the sight;
You see not upon what you tread;
You have the ages for your guide,
But not the wisdom to be led.
"Think you to tread forever down
The merciless old verities?
And are you never to have eyes
To see the world for what it is?
"Are you to pay for what you have
With all you are?"--No other word
We caught, but with a laughing crowd
Moved on. None heeded, and few heard.
Scheme | XXAX BCBC XDXD XEXE XFXF GXGX EHXH XIXI XJXJ XKFK XXXX XAXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 111111 11111101 11011101 01111101 11110101 11111111 11011101 11011101 11010111 11011111 11111111 11110001 11010111 11110111 11011111 11011101 01010101 11110111 11111111 01010001 11011100 11010101 110011111 10111 101010 11011101 11011101 11110101 11010101 01001101 11011101 1111011 01110101 11010101 11110111 11010101 010111101 11101111 11010111 11010111 11110101 01001100 01110111 11011111 11111111 11111101 11110101 11110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,616 |
Words | 318 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 102 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 1:35 min read
- 363 Views
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"Cassandra" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9957/cassandra>.
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