Analysis of The Statue Of The Dying Gladiator
Felicia Dorothea Hemans 1793 (Liverpool, Lancashire) – 1835 (Dublin, County Dublin)
COMMANDING pow'r! whose hand with plastic art
Bids the rude stone to grace and being start;
Swell to the waving line the polish'd form,
And only want Promethean fire to warm ;—
Sculpture, exult! thy triumph proudly see,
The Roman slave immortalized by thee!
No suppliant sighs, no terrors round him wait,
But vanquish'd valor soars above his fate!
In that fix'd eye still proud defiance low'rs,
In that stern look indignant grandeur tow'rs!
He sees e'en death, with javelin barb'd in pain,
A foe but worthy of sublime disdain!
Too firm, too lofty, for one parting tear,
A quiv'ring pulse, a struggle, or a fear!
Oh! fire of soul! by servitude disgrac'd,
Perverted courage! energy debas'd!
Lost Rome! thy slave, expiring in the dust,
Tow'rs far above Patrician rank, august!
While that proud rank, insatiate, could survey
Pageants that stain'd with blood each festal day!
Oh! had that arm, which grac'd thy deathful show,
With many a daring feat and nervous blow,
Wav'd the keen sword and rear'd the patriot-shield,
Firm in thy cause, on Glory's laureate field;
Then, like the marble form, from age to age,
His name had liv'd in history's brightest page;
While death had but secur'd the victor's crown,
And seal'd the suffrage of deserv'd renown!
That gen'rous pride, that spirit unsubdu'd,
That soul, with honor's high-wrought sense imbu'd,
Had shone, recorded in the song of fame,
A beam, as now, a blemish, on thy name!
Yet here, so well has art majestic wrought,
Sublimed expression, and ennobled thought;
A dying Hero we behold, alone,
And Mind's bright grandeur animates the stone!
'Tis not th' Arena's venal champion bleeds,
No! 'tis some warrior, fam'd for matchless deeds!
Admiring rapture kindles into flame,
Nature and art the palm divided claim!
Nature (exulting in her spirit's pow'r,
To rise victorious in the dreaded hour,)
Triumphs, that death and all his shadowy train,
Assail a mortal's constancy—in vain!
And Art, rejoicing in the work sublime,
Unhurt by all the sacrilege of time,
Smiles o'er the marble, her divine control
Moulded to symmetry, and fir'd with soul!
Scheme | AABBCCDDCCEEXX FFGGHH IIJJKKLLAXMM NNOOPPMMXXEEQQRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011111101 1011110101 1101010101 010111011 1001110101 0101010011 111110111 1101010111 0111110101 0111010011 111111100101 0111010101 1111011101 011010101 1101111001 0101010001 1111010001 1101010110 11111101 101111111 111111111 11001010101 10110101001 1011111001 1101011111 11110100101 1111010101 0101010101 1111101 1111011101 1101000111 0111010111 1111110101 101000101 0101010101 0110110001 1111010101001 1111001111 010101011 1001010101 10010001011 110100001010 10110111001 010110001 0101000101 0111010011 11001000101 1110001011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,055 |
Words | 351 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 6, 12, 16 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 403 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 87 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 122 Views
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"The Statue Of The Dying Gladiator" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13621/the-statue-of-the-dying-gladiator>.
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