Analysis of Chattanooga
A kindling impulse seized the host
Inspired by heaven's elastic air;
Their hearts outran their General's plan,
Though Grant commanded there--
Grant, who without reserve can dare;
And, 'Well, go on and do your will,'
He said, and measured the mountain then:
So master-riders fling the rein--
But you must know your men.
On yester-morn in grayish mist,
Armies like ghosts on hills had fought,
And rolled from the cloud their thunders loud
The Cumberlands far had caught:
To-day the sunlit steeps are sought.
Grant stood on cliffs whence all was plain,
And smoked as one who feels no cares;
But mastered nervousness intense
Alone such calmness wears.
The summit-cannon plunge their flame
Sheer down the primal wall,
But up and up each linking troop
In stretching festoons crawl--
Nor fire a shot. Such men appall
The foe, though brave. He, from the brink,
Looks far along the breadth of slope,
And sees two miles of dark dots creep,
And knows they mean the cope.
He sees them creep. Yet here and there
Half hid 'mid leafless groves they go;
As men who ply through traceries high
Of turreted marbles show--
So dwindle these to eyes below.
But fronting shot and flanking shell
Sliver and rive the inwoven ways;
High tops of oaks and high hearts fall,
But never the climbing stays.
From right to left, from left to right
They roll the rallying cheer--
Vie with each other, brother with brother,
Who shall the first appear--
What color-bearer with colors clear
In sharp relief, like sky-drawn Grant,
Whose cigar must now be near the stump--
While in solicitude his back
Heaps slowly to a hump.
Near and more near; till now the flags
Run like a catching flame;
And one flares highest, to peril nighest--
_He_ means to make a name:
Salvos! they give him his fame.
The staff is caught, and next the rush,
And then the leap where death has led;
Flag answered flag along the crest,
And swarms of rebels fled.
But some who gained the envied Alp,
And--eager, ardent, earnest there--
Dropped into Death's wide-open arms,
Quelled on the wing like eagles struck in
air--
Forever they slumber young and fair,
The smile upon them as they died;
Their end attained, that end a height:
Life was to these a dream fulfilled,
And death a starry night.
Scheme | ABXBBXCDC XEXXEDFXF GHIHHXJXJ BKXKKXLHL MNXNNXOXO XGAGGXPXP IBXXBBXMXM |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010101 0101100101 110111001 110101 11010111 01110111 110100101 11010101 111111 1110101 10111111 011011101 01111 1101111 11111111 01111111 11010001 011101 01010111 110101 11011101 01011 110011101 01111101 11010111 01111111 011101 11111101 11110111 1111111 11101 11011101 11010101 1001011 11110111 1100101 11111111 1101001 1111010110 110101 110101101 01011111 101111101 1001011 110101 10111101 110101 011101101 111101 1011111 01110101 01011111 11010101 011101 11110101 01010101 10111101 110111010 1 010110101 01011111 11011101 11110101 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,185 |
Words | 397 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 249 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:59 min read
- 76 Views
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"Chattanooga" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19057/chattanooga>.
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