Analysis of On The Star Of 'The Legion Of Honour' (From The French)
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
Star of the brave!--whose beam hath shed
Such glory o'er the quick and dead
Thou radiant and adored deceit!
Which millions rush'd in arms to greet,
Wild meteor of immortal birth;
Why rise in Heaven to set on Earth?
Souls of slain heroes form'd thy rays;
Eternity flash'd through thy blaze;
The music of thy martial sphere
Was fame on high and honour here;
And thy light broke on human eyes,
Like a volcano of the skies.
Like lava roll'd thy stream of blood,
And swept down empires with its flood;
Earth rock'd beneath thee to her base,
As thou didst lighten through all space;
And the shorn Sun grew dim in air,
And set while thou wert dwelling there.
Before thee rose, and with thee grew,
A rainbow of the loveliest hue
Of three bright colours, each divine,
And fit for that celestial sign;
For Freedom's hand had blended them,
Like tints in an immortal gem.
One tint was of the sunbeam's dyes;
One, the blue depth of Seraph's eyes;
One the pure Spirit's veil of white
Had robed in radiance of its light:
The three so mingled did beseem
The texture of a heavenly dream.
Star of the brave! thy ray is pale,
And darkness must again prevail!
But, oh thou Rainbow of the free!
Our tears and blood must flow for thee.
When thy bright promise fades away,
Our life is but a load of clay.
And Freedom hallows with her tread
The silent cities of the dead;
For beautiful in death are they
Who proudly fall in her array;
And soon, oh Goddess! may we be
For evermore with them or thee!
Scheme | AABBCC DDXXEE FFGGHH IIJJKK EELLKX MMNNOO AAOONN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 110100101 110000101 11010111 110010101 110101111 11110111 01001111 01011101 1111011 01111101 10010101 11011111 011100111 11011101 11110111 00111101 01111101 01110111 011011 1111101 01110101 11011101 11010101 1111011 1011111 10110111 110100111 0111011 010101001 11011111 01010101 1111101 101011111 11110101 101110111 01010101 01010101 11000111 11010001 01110111 1101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,447 |
Words | 280 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 164 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 88 Views
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"On The Star Of 'The Legion Of Honour' (From The French)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15177/on-the-star-of-%27the-legion-of-honour%27-%28from-the-french%29>.
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