Analysis of The Barbarous Chief
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919
There was a kingdom known as the Mind,
A kingdom vast as fair,
And the brave king, Brain, had the right to reign,
In royal splendor there.
Oh! that was a beautiful, beautiful land,
Which unto this king was given;
Filled with everything good and grand,
And it reached from earth to heaven.
But a savage monster came one day
From over a distant border;
He warred with the king and disputed his sway,
And set the whole land in disorder.
He mounted the throne, which he made his own,
He sunk the kingdom in grief.
There was trouble and shame from the hour he came-
Illtemper, the barbarous chief.
He threw down the castles of love and peace,
He burned up the altars of prayers.
He trod down the grain that was planted by Brain,
And scattered thistles and tares.
He wasted the store-house of knowledge and drove
Queen Wisdom away in fright;
And a terrible gloom, like the cloud of doom,
Shrouded that land in night.
Bent on more havoc away he rushed
To the neighboring kingdom, Heart;
And the blossoms of kindness and hope he crushed-
And patience he pierced with his dart,
And he even went on to the Isthmus Soul,
That unites the mind with God,
And its beautiful bowers of fragrant flowers
With a ruthless heel he trod.
To you is given this wonderful land
Where the lordly Brain has sway;
But the border ruffian is near at hand,
Be on your guard, I pray.
Beware of Illtemper, the barbarous chief,
He is cruel as vice or sin,
And your beautiful kingdom will come to grief
If once you let him in.
Scheme | XABACDCD EFEFXGXG HXBHXIXI JKJKXLXL CECEGMGM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (25%) |
Metre | 110101101 010111 0011110111 010101 11101001001 11011110 1110101 01111110 101010111 11001010 11101001011 010110010 1100111111 1101001 111001101011 101001 1110101101 11101011 11101111011 0101001 11001111001 1100101 00100110111 101101 111100111 10100101 00101100111 01011111 01101110101 1010111 011001011010 1010111 1111011001 101111 101011111 111111 011101001 11101111 01100101111 111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,459 |
Words | 280 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 234 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 93 Views
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