Analysis of A Meditation
How often in the years that close,
When truce had stilled the sieging gun,
The soldiers, mounting on their works,
With mutual curious glance have run
From face to face along the fronting show,
And kinsman spied, or friend--even in a foe.
What thoughts conflicting then were shared,
While sacred tenderness perforce
Welled from the heart and wet the eye;
And something of a strange remorse
Rebelled against the sanctioned sin of blood,
And Christian wars of natural brotherhood.
Then stirred the god within the breast--
The witness that is man's at birth;
A deep misgiving undermined
Each plea and subterfuge of earth;
They felt in that rapt pause, with warning rife,
Horror and anguish for the civil strife.
Of North or South they reeked not then,
Warm passion cursed the cause of war:
Can Africa pay back this blood
Spilt on Potomac's shore?
Yet doubts, as pangs, were vain the strife
to stay,
And hands that fain had clasped again
could slay.
How frequent in the camp was seen
The herald from the hostile one,
A guest and frank companion there
When the proud formal talk was done;
The pipe of peace was smoked even 'mid the
war,
And fields in Mexico again fought o'er.
In Western battle long they lay
So near opposed in trench or pit,
That foeman unto foeman called
As men who screened in tavern sit:
'You bravely fight' each to the other said--
'Toss us a biscuit!' o'er the wall it sped.
And pale on those same slopes, a boy--
A stormer, bled in noon-day glare;
No aid the Blue-coats then could bring,
He cried to them who nearest were,
And out there came 'mid howling shot and shell
A daring foe who him befriended well.
Mark the great Captains on both sides,
The soldiers with the broad renown--
They all were messmates on the Hudson's
marge,
Beneath one roof they laid them down;
And, free from hate in many an after pass,
Strove as in school-boy rivalry of the class.
A darker side there is; but doubt
In Nature's charity hovers there:
If men for new agreement yearn,
Then old upbraiding best forbear:
'The South's the sinner!' Well, so let it be;
But shall the North sin worse, and stand the
Pharisee?
O, now that brave men yield the sword,
Mine be the manful soldier-view;
By how much more they boldly warred,
By so much more is mercy due:
When Vicksburg fell, and the moody files
marched out,
Silent the victors stood, scorning to raise a
shout.
Scheme | ABXBCC DEXEFX XGXGHH IJFJHKIK XBLBMJN KOXOPP XLXNQQ XRXXRSS TLXJXMA XUDUXTMT |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11000111 1111011 01010111 1100100111 1111010101 0111110001 11010101 11010001 11010101 01010101 0101010111 0101110010 11010101 01011111 0101001 1101011 1101111101 1001010101 11111111 11010111 11001111 1111 11110101 11 01111101 11 11000111 01010101 01010101 10110111 0111111010 1 0101001110 01010111 11010111 111011 11110101 1101110101 11010100111 01111101 01010111 11011111 11111100 0111110101 0101110101 10110111 01010101 11011010 1 01111111 01110101101 11011100101 01011111 010100101 11110101 11111 0101011111 110111010 1 11111101 1101101 11111101 11111101 110100101 11 1001011110 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,298 |
Words | 428 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 8, 7, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8 |
Lines Amount | 67 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 184 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:10 min read
- 99 Views
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"A Meditation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19048/a-meditation>.
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