Analysis of Caesar's Wife
Isabella Valancy Crawford 1850 (Dublin) – 1887 (Toronto)
NAY! swear no more, thou woman whom I called
Star, Empress, Wife! Were Dian's self to lean
From her white altar and with goddess lip
Swear thee as pure as her pale breast divine,
I could not deem thee purer than I know
Thou art indeed.
Once, when my triumphs rolled
Along old Rome and blood of roses washed
The battle-stains from off my chariot-wheels,
And triumph's thunders round my legions roared,
And kings in kingly bondage golden bound
Shook at my charger's foot, past the hot din
Of Victory-whose heart of golden pride in wound
Most subtly through with fire of subtlest pain-
My soul on prouder pinion rose above
The Roman shouting, to an air more clear
Than that Jove darks with hurtling thunderbolts,
Or stains with Jovian revels-that separate sphere,
Unshared of gods or man, where thy white feet
Caught their sole staining from my ruddy heart,
Blazing beneath them; where, when Rome looked up,
'Twas with the eyes close shaded with the hand,
As at some glory terrible and pure,-
For no man being pure, a terror dwells
Holy and awful in a sinless thing-
And Caesar's wife, the Empress-Matron, sat
Above a doubt-as high above a stain.
Nay! how know I what hell first belched abroad
Tall flames and slanderous vomitings of smoke,
Blown by infernal breathings, till they scaled
Thy throne of whiteness, and the very slaves
Who crouched in Roman kennels wagged the tongue
Against the wife of Caesar: 'Ha! we need not now
And opal-shaded stone wherewith to view
A stainless glory.' In that day my neck
Was bound and yoked with my twin-Caesar's yoke-
Man's master, Sorrow.
I know thee pure-
But Caesar's wife must throne herself so high
Upon the hills that touch their snowy crests
So close on Heaven that no slanderous Hell
Can dash its lava up their swelling sides.
I love thee, woman, know thee pure, but thou
No more art wife of Caesar. Get thee hence!
My heart is hardened as a lonely crag,
Grey granite lifted to a greyer sky,
And where against its solitary crown
Eternal thunders bellow.
Scheme | XXXXAX XXBXCXCDXEBEXXXXFXGXD XHXXXIXXHA FJXXXIXGJXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110111 110101111 1011001101 1111101101 1111110111 1101 111101 0111011101 01011111001 011011101 0101010101 111111011 110011110101 11001110111 1111010101 0101011111 11111101 111100101101 111111111 1111011101 1001111111 1101110101 1111010001 1111010101 100100011 0101010101 0101110101 1111111101 110100111 110101111 1111000101 1101010101 010111011111 010101111 0101001111 1101111101 11010 1111 1101110111 0101111101 11110111001 1111011101 1111011111 1111110111 1111010101 110101011 010111001 0101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,959 |
Words | 358 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 21, 10, 11 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 395 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 89 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 43 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Caesar's Wife" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19892/caesar%27s-wife>.
Discuss this Isabella Valancy Crawford poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In