Analysis of The Cumberland
At anchor in Hampton Roads we lay,
On board of the Cumberland sloop-of-war;
And at times from the fortress across the bay
The alarum of drums swept past,
Or a bugle blast
From the camp on the shore.
Then far away to the south uprose
A little feather of snow-white smoke,
And we knew that the iron ship of our foes
Was steadily steering its course
To try the force
Of our ribs of oak.
Down upon us heavily runs,
Silent and sullen, the floating fort;
Then comes a puff of smoke from her guns,
And leaps the terrible death,
With fiery breath,
From each open port.
We are not idle, but send her straight
Defiance back in a full broadside!
As hail rebounds from a roof of slate,
Rebounds our heavier hail
From each iron scale
Of the monster's hide.
'Strike your flag!' the rebel cries,
In his arrogant old plantation strain.
'Never!' our gallant Morris replies:
'It is better to sink than to yield!'
And the whole air is pealed
With the cheers of our men.
Then like a kraken huge and black,
She crushed our ribs in her iron grasp!
Down went the Cumberland all awrack,
With a sudden shudder of death,
And the cannon's breath
For her dying gasp.
Next morn, as the sun rose over the bay,
Still floated our flag at the mainmast-head.
Lord, how beautiful was thy day!
Every waft of the air
Was a whisper of prayer,
Or a dirge for the dead.
Ho! brave hearts that went down in the seas!
Ye are at peace in the troubled stream.
Ho! brave land! with hearts like these,
Thy flag, that is rent in twain,
Shall be one again,
And without a seam.
Scheme | ABACCB DEDDDE DFDGGF HIHJJI DKDXCL XMEGGM ANAOON DPDKLP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110010111 1110100111 01110100101 011111 10101 101101 11011011 010101111 011101011101 11001011 1101 110111 10111001 100100101 110111101 0101001 11001 11101 111101101 01010011 11110111 1101001 11101 1011 1110101 011001101 1010101001 111011111 001111 1011101 1101101 1110100101 11010011 10101011 00101 10101 1110111001 1101011011 11100111 1001101 101011 101101 111111001 111100101 1111111 1111101 11101 00101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,488 |
Words | 295 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 148 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 86 Views
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"The Cumberland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18841/the-cumberland>.
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