Analysis of The Division Of The Earth
Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)
"Take the world!" Zeus exclaimed from his throne in the skies
To the children of man--"take the world I now give;
It shall ever remain as your heirloom and prize,
So divide it as brothers, and happily live."
Then all who had hands sought their share to obtain,
The young and the aged made haste to appear;
The husbandman seized on the fruits of the plain,
The youth through the forest pursued the fleet deer.
The merchant took all that his warehouse could hold,
The abbot selected the last year's best wine,
The king barred the bridges,--the highways controlled,
And said, "Now remember, the tithes shall be mine!"
But when the division long-settled had been,
The poet drew nigh from a far distant land;
But alas! not a remnant was now to be seen,
Each thing on the earth owned a master's command.
"Alas! shall then I, of thy sons the most true,--
Shall I, 'mongst them all, be forgotten alone?"
Thus loudly he cried in his anguish, and threw
Himself in despair before Jupiter's throne.
"If thou in the region of dreams didst delay,
Complain not of me," the Immortal replied;
"When the world was apportioned, where then wert thou, pray?"
"I was," said the poet, "I was--by thy side!"
"Mine eye was then fixed on thy features so bright,
Mine ear was entranced by thy harmony's power;
Oh, pardon the spirit that, awed by thy light,
All things of the earth could forget in that hour!"
"What to do?" Zeus exclaimed,--"for the world has been given;
The harvest, the market, the chase, are not free;
But if thou with me wilt abide in my heaven,
Whenever thou comest, 'twill be open to thee!"
Scheme | AXAX BCBC DEDE XFXF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MNMN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 101101111001 101011101111 11100111101 101111001001 11111111101 0100111101 011101101 01101001011 0101111111 01001001111 0110100101 01101001111 11001011011 01011101101 101101011111 11101101001 01111111011 11111101001 11011011001 01001011001 11001011101 01111001001 101101011111 11101011111 11111111011 1110111110 11001011111 111011010110 1111011011110 01001001111 111111010110 01011111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,578 |
Words | 301 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 38 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 151 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 47 Views
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"The Division Of The Earth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14377/the-division-of-the-earth>.
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