Analysis of The Camp of Souls
Isabella Valancy Crawford 1850 (Dublin) – 1887 (Toronto)
1 My white canoe, like the silvery air
2 O'er the River of Death that darkly rolls
3 When the moons of the world are round and fair,
4 I paddle back from the 'Camp of Souls.'
5 When the wishton-wish in the low swamp grieves
6 Come the dark plumes of red 'Singing Leaves.'
7 Two hundred times have the moons of spring
8 Rolled over the bright bay's azure breath
9 Since they decked me with plumes of an eagle's wing,
10 And painted my face with the 'paint of death,'
11 And from their pipes o'er my corpse there broke
12 The solemn rings of the blue 'last smoke.'
13 Two hundred times have the wintry moons
14 Wrapped the dead earth in a blanket white;
15 Two hundred times have the wild sky loons
16 Shrieked in the flush of the golden light
17 Of the first sweet dawn, when the summer weaves
18 Her dusky wigwam of perfect leaves.
19 Two hundred moons of the falling leaf
20 Since they laid my bow in my dead right hand
21 And chanted above me the 'song of grief'
22 As I took my way to the spirit land;
23 Yet when the swallow the blue air cleaves
24 Come the dark plumes of red 'Singing Leaves.'
25 White are the wigwams in that far camp,
26 And the star-eyed deer on the plains are found;
27 No bitter marshes or tangled swamp
28 In the Manitou's happy hunting-ground!
29 And the moon of summer forever rolls
30 Above the red men in their 'Camp of Souls.'
31 Blue are its lakes as the wild dove's breast,
32 And their murmurs soft as her gentle note;
33 As the calm, large stars in the deep sky rest,
34 The yellow lilies upon them float;
35 And canoes, like flakes of the silvery snow,
36 Thro' the tall, rustling rice-beds come and go.
37 Green are its forests; no warrior wind
38 Rushes on war trail the dusk grove through,
39 With leaf-scalps of tall trees mourning behind;
40 But South Wind, heart friend of Great Manitou,
41 When ferns and leaves with cool dews are wet,
42 Bows flowery breaths from his red calumet.
43 Never upon them the white frosts lie,
44 Nor glow their green boughs with the 'paint of death';
45 Manitou smiles in the crystal sky,
46 Close breathing above them His life-strong breath;
47 And He speaks no more in fierce thunder sound,
48 So near is His happy hunting-ground.
49 Yet often I love, in my white canoe,
50 To come to the forests and camps of earth:
51 'Twas there death's black arrow pierced me through;
52 'Twas there my red-browed mother gave me birth;
53 There I, in the light of a young man's dawn,
54 Won the lily heart of dusk 'Springing Fawn.'
55 And love is a cord woven out of life,
56 And dyed in the red of the living heart;
57 And time is the hunter's rusty knife,
58 That cannot cut the red strands apart:
59 And I sail from the spirit shore to scan
60 Where the weaving of that strong cord began.
61 But I may not come with a giftless hand,
62 So richly I pile, in my white canoe,
63 Flowers that bloom in the spirit land,
64 Immortal smiles of Great Manitou.
65 When I paddle back to the shores of earth
66 I scatter them over the white man's hearth.
67 For love is the breath of the soul set free;
68 So I cross the river that darkly rolls,
69 That my spirit may whisper soft to thee
70 Of thine who wait in the 'Camp of Souls.'
71 When the bright day laughs, or the wan night grieves,
72 Come the dusky plumes of red 'Singing Leaves.'
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHCC IJIJCC XKXKBB LMLMNN OPOHQQ REREKK PSPSTT UVUVWW JPJHSX XBXBCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101101001 10010111101 1011011101 110110111 101100111 101111101 110110111 110011101 11111111101 0101110111 0111101111 010110111 110110101 101100101 110110111 100110101 1011110101 01101011 110110101 1111101111 0100110111 1111110101 110100111 101111101 11010111 0011110111 110101101 00110101 0011100101 0101101111 111110111 0110110101 1011100111 010100111 00111101001 1011011101 1111011001 101110111 1111111001 11111111 110111111 1100111101 100110111 1111110111 1100101 1100111111 0111101101 111110101 1101101101 1110100111 111110111 1111110111 1100110111 1010111101 0110110111 0100110101 011010101 110101101 0111010111 1010111101 111111011 1101101101 101100101 0101111 1110110111 1101100111 1110110111 1110101101 1110110111 111100111 1011110111 101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,646 |
Words | 662 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 15 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 212 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 88 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:19 min read
- 112 Views
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