Analysis of To Carmen Sylva
Oh, that the golden lyre divine
Whence David smote flame-tones were mine!
Oh, that the silent harp which hung
Untuned, unstrung,
Upon the willows by the river,
Would throb beneath my touch and quiver
With the old song-enchanted spell
Of Israel!
Oh, that the large prophetic Voice
Would make my reed-piped throat its choice!
All ears should prick, all hearts should spring,
To hear me sing
The burden of the isles, the word
Assyria knew, Damascus heard,
When, like the wind, while cedars shake,
Isaiah spake.
For I would frame a song to-day
Winged like a bird to cleave its way
O'er land and sea that spread between,
To where a Queen
Sits with a triple coronet.
Genius and Sorrow both have set
Their diadems above the gold-
A Queen three-fold!
To her the forest lent its lyre,
Hers are the sylvan dews, the fire
Of Orient suns, the mist-wreathed gleams
?????? Of mountain streams.
She, the imperial Rhine's own child,
Takes to her heart the wood-nymph wild,
The gypsy Pelech, and the wide,
White Danube's tide.
She who beside an infant's bier
Long since resigned all hope to hear
The sacred name of 'Mother' bless
Her childlessness,
Now from a people's sole acclaim
Receives the heart-vibrating name,
And 'Mother, Mother, Mother!' fills
The echoing hills.
Yet who is he who pines apart,
Estranged from that maternal heart,
Ungraced, unfriended, and forlorn,
The butt of scorn?
An alien in his land of birth,
An outcast from his brethren's earth,
Albeit with theirs his blood mixed well
When Plevna fell?
When all Roumania's chains were riven,
When unto all his sons was given
The hero's glorious reward,
Reaped by the sword,-
Wherefore was this poor thrall, whose chains
Hung heaviest, within whose veins
The oldest blood of freedom streamed,
Still unredeemed?
O Mother, Poet, Queen in one!
Pity and save-he is thy son.
For poet David's sake, the king
Of all who sing;
For thine own people's sake who share
His law, his truth, his praise, his prayer;
For his sake who was sacrificed-
His brother-Christ!
Scheme | AABBCCDX EEFFGGHH IIJJKKLL XCMMNNOO PPXEQQRR SSTTUUDD VVWWXXYY VVFFZZ1 1 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11011101 11010111 11 01011010 110111010 10110101 1100 11010101 11111111 11111111 1111 01010101 010010101 11011101 101 11110111 11011111 101011101 1101 11010101 10010111 110101 0111 10010111 010101010 11010111 1101 100100111 11010111 0101001 111 11011101 11011111 01011101 01 11010101 01011001 01010101 01001 11111101 01110101 11001 0111 110001111 111111 010111111 111 1111010 110111110 01010001 1101 1111111 11000111 01011101 101 11010101 10011111 11010101 1111 11110111 11111111 1111110 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,947 |
Words | 348 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 195 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:47 min read
- 94 Views
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"To Carmen Sylva" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12741/to-carmen-sylva>.
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