Analysis of Extempore Lines
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
A MORNING crowns the Western hill,
A day begins to reign,
A sun awakes o’er distant seas—
Shall never sleep again.
The world is growing old,
And men are waxing wise;
A mist has cleared—a something falls
Like scales from off their eyes.
Too long the “Dark of Ignorance”
Has brooded on their way;
Too long Oppression ’s stood before,
Excluding light of day.
But now they’ve found the track
And now they’ve seen the dawn,
A “beacon lamp” is pointing on,
Where stronger glows the morn.
Since Adam lived, the mighty ones
Have ever ruled the weak;
Since Noah’s flood, the fettered slave
Has seldom dared to speak.
’Tis time a voice was heard,
’Tis time a voice was spoken
So in the chain of tyranny
A link or two be broken.
A tiny rill will swell a stream,
A spark will cause a flame,
And one man’s burning eloquence
Has help’d to do the same.
And he will persevere,
And soon that blaze must spread,
Till to the corners of the earth
Reflecting beams are shed.
The “few” will try to beat it down,
But can they stop the flood—
Bind up the pinions of the light,
Or check the will of God?
And is it not His will
That deeply injured Right
Should overthrow the iron rule
And reign instead of Might?
Scheme | AXXXXBXB CDXDXXXX XEXEXFXF XGCGXHXH XXIXAIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 01010101 010111 0111101 110101 011101 011101 01110101 111111 11011100 110111 110101101 010111 111101 011101 01011101 110101 11010101 110101 1110101 110111 110111 1101110 10011100 0111110 01011101 011101 01110100 111101 011001 011111 11010101 010111 01111111 111101 1101101 110111 011111 110101 1100101 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,191 |
Words | 227 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 183 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 115 Views
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"Extempore Lines" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17486/extempore-lines>.
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