Analysis of An Interregnum
Isabella Valancy Crawford 1850 (Dublin) – 1887 (Toronto)
LOUD trumpets blow among the naked pines,
Fine spun as sere-cloth rent from royal dead.
Seen ghostly thro' high-lifted vagrant drifts,
Shrill blaring, but no longer loud to moons
Like a brown maid of Egypt stands the Earth,
Her empty valley palms stretched to the Sun
For largesse of his gold. Her mountain tops
Still beacon winter with white flame of snow,
Fading along his track; her rivers shake
Wild manes, and paw their banks as though to flee
Their riven fetters.
Lawless is the time,
Full of loud kingless voices that way gone:
The Polar Caesar striding to the north,
Nor yet the sapphire-gated south unfolds
For Spring's sweet progress; the winds, unkinged,
Reach gusty hands of riot round the brows
Of lordly mountains waiting for a lord,
And pluck the ragged beards of lonely pines-
Watchers on heights for that sweet, hidden king,
Bud-crowned and dreaming yet on other shores-
And mock their patient waiting. But by night
The round Moon falters up a softer sky,
Drawn by silver cords of gentler stars
Than darted chill flames on the wintry earth.
Within his azure battlements the Sun
Regilds his face with joyance, for he sees,
From those high towers, Spring, earth's fairest lord,
Soft-cradled on the wings of rising swans,
With violet eyes slow budding into smiles,
And small, bright hands with blossom largesse full,
Crowned with an orchard coronal of white,
And with a sceptre of a ruddy reed
Burnt at its top to amethystine bloom.
Come, Lord, thy kingdom stretches barren hands!
Come, King, and chain thy rebels to thy throne
With tendrils of vine and jewelled links
Of ruddy buds pulsating into flower!
Scheme | ABXXCDXXXXX XXXXBXEAXXFXXC DXEXXXFXXXXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010101 1111111101 1101110101 1101110111 1011110101 0101011101 1011110101 1101011111 1001110101 1101111111 11010 10101 111110111 0101010101 11010010101 1111011 1101110101 111010101 0101011101 1011111101 1101011101 0111010111 0111010101 111011101 1101110101 0111010001 11111111 1111011101 111011101 11001110011 0111110011 11110111 0101010101 1111111 1111010101 1101110111 1111011 1101100110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,590 |
Words | 280 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 14, 13 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 431 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 93 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 120 Views
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"An Interregnum" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19885/an-interregnum>.
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