Analysis of The Isles of Greece
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus
sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set...
The mountains look on Marathon--
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians' grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.
A king sat on the rocky brow
Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,
And men in nations--all were his!
He counted them at break of day--
And when the sun set, where were they?
And where are they? And where art thou?
My country? On thy voiceless shore
The heroic lay is tuneless now--
The heroic bosom beats no more!
And must thy lyre, so long divine,
Degenerate into hands like mine?
'Tis something, in the dearth of fame,
Though linked among a fettered race,
To feel at least a patriot's shame,
Even as I sing, suffuse my face;
For what is left the poet here?
For Greeks a blush--for Greece a tear....
Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
Our virgins dance beneath the shade--
I see their glorious black eyes shine;
But gazing on each glowing maid,
My own the burning teardrop laves,
To think such breasts must suckle slaves.
Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;
There, swanlike, let me sing and die:
A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine--
Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!
Scheme | ABAXBCC XDXDEE FXXXGG FHFHII JKJKXX ILILAX MNMNII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110111 1101101 11011101 111010 1 01010111 11011111 0101110 0101101 010111001 11111111 11010101 1111101 01110101 111011010 01110101 01010101 11011111 01011101 01110111 11011101 00101111 001010111 01111101 010001111 11000111 11010101 111101001 101110111 11110101 11011101 1101111 101010101 111100111 11011101 1101011 11111101 1111101 11010101 1110100101 1111101 01111111 1111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,771 |
Words | 278 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 43 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 165 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 794 Views
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