Analysis of The Voice
I dreamed a Voice, of one God-authorised,
Cried loudly thro’ the world, ‘Disarm! Disarm! ’
And there was consernation in the camps;
And men who strutted under braid and lace
Beat on their medalled breasts, and wailed,
‘Undone! ’
The word was echoed from a thousand hills,
And shop and mill, and factory and forge,
Where throve the awful industries of death,
Hushed into silence. Scrawled upon the doors,
The passer read, ‘Peace bids her children
Starve.’
But foolish women clasped their little sons
And wept for joy, not reasoning like men.
Again the Voice commanded: ‘Now go forth
And build a world for Progress and for Peace.
This world had waited since the earth was
Shaped;
But men were fighting, and they could not
Toil.
The needs of life outnumbered needs of death.
Leave death with God. Go forth, I say, and
Build.’
And then a sudden comprehensive joy
Shone in the eyes of men; and one who thought
Only of conquests and of victories
Woke from his gloomy reverie and cried,
‘Ay, come and build! I challenge all to try.
And I will make a world more beautiful
Then Eden was before the serpent came.’
And like a running flame on western wilds,
Ambition spread from mind to listening mind,
And lo! the looms were busy once again,
And all the earth resounded with men’s toil.
Vast palaces of Science graced the world;
Their banquet tables spread with feasts of truth
For all who hungered. Music kissed the air,
Once rent with boom of cannons. Statues gleamed
From wooded ways, where ambushed armies hid
In times of old. The sea and air were gay
With shining sails that soared from land to land.
A universal language of the world
Made nations kin, and poverty was known
But as a word marked ‘obsolete, ’ like war.
The arts were kindled with celestial fire;
New poets sang so Homer’s fame grew dim;
And brush and chisel gave the wondering race
Sublimer treasures than old Greece displayed.
Men differed still; fierce argument arose,
For men are human in this human sphere;
But unarmed Arbitration stood between
And Reason settled in a hundred hours
What War disputed for a hundred years.
Oh, that a Voice, of one God-authorised
Might cry to all mankind, Disarm! Disarm!
Remembered
His art was loving; Eres set his sign
Upon that youthful forehead, and he drew
The hearts of women, as the sun draws dew.
Love feeds love’s thirst as wine feeds love of wine;
Nor is there any potion from the vine
Which makes men drunken like the subtle brew
Of kisses crushed by kisses; and he grew
Inebriated with that draught divine.
Yet in his sober moments, when the sun
Of radiant summer paled to lonely fall,
And passion’s sea had grown an ebbing tide,
From out the many, Memory singled one
Full cup that seemed the sweetest of them all –
The warm red mouth that mocked him and denied.
Scheme | ABXCADXXEXDXXF XXXAAGEAA XAXAXXXXAFG AXXAAXAAX XXXCAXXXXX AB AHIAHHIIH DJADJA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (23%) |
Metre | 11011111 1101010101 0111001 011110101 1111101 01 0111010101 0101010001 1101010011 1011010101 010111010 1 1101011101 0111110011 0101010111 010111011 111101011 1 110100111 1 011110111 111111110 1 010100101 1001110111 101101100 1111010001 1101110111 0111011100 1101010101 0101011101 01011111001 0101010101 01011111 1100110101 1101011111 111110101 111111011 110111101 0111010101 1101111111 001010101 1101010011 110111011 01010101010 1101110111 01010101001 11011101 1101110001 1111001101 101010101 01010001010 1101010101 11011111 1111110101 010 111101111 0111010011 0111010111 1111111111 1111010101 1111010101 1101110011 010011101 1011010101 11001011101 0101111101 11010100101 1111010111 0111111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,822 |
Words | 501 |
Sentences | 29 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 9, 11, 9, 10, 2, 9, 6 |
Lines Amount | 70 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 273 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 2:30 min read
- 70 Views
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"The Voice" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10926/the-voice>.
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