Analysis of Zu der edlen Yagd
Adam Lindsay Gordon 1833 – 1870
I remember some words my father said,
When I was an urchin vain ;—
God rest his soul, in his narrow bed
These ten long years he hath lain.
When I think one drop of the blood he bore
This faint heart surely must hold,
It may be my fancy and nothing more,
But the faint heart seemeth bold.
He said that as from the blood of grape,
Or from juice distilled from the grain,
False vigour, soon to evaporate,
Is lent to nerve and brain,
So the coward will dare on the gallant horse
What he never would dare alone,
Because he exults in a borrowed force,
And a hardihood not his own.
And it may be so, yet this difference lies
'Twixt the vine and the saddle-tree,
The spurious courage that drink supplies
Sets our baser passions free ;
But the stimulant which the horseman feels,
When he gallops fast and straight,
To his better nature most appeals
And charity conquers hate.
As the kindly sunshine thaws the snow,
E'en malice and spite will yield,
We could almost welcome our mortal foe
In the saddle by flood and field ;
And chivalry dawns in the merry tale
That 'Market Harborough' writes,
And the yarns of 'Nimrod' and 'Martingale'
Seem legends of loyal knights.
Now, tell me for once, old horse of mine
Grazing round me loose and free,
Does your ancient equine heart repine
For a burst in such companie,
Where 'the Powers that be' in the front rank ride,
To hold your own with the throng,
Or to plunge at 'Faugh-a-Ballagh's' side
In the rapids of Dandenong ?
Don't tread on my toes, you're no foolish weight,
So I found to my cost, as under
Your carcass I lay, when you rose too late,
Yet I blame you not for the blunder.
What ! sulky, old man, your under lip falls !
You think I too ready to rail am
At your kinship remote to that duffer at walls,
The talkative roadster of Balaam.
Scheme | ABABCDCD XBEBFGFG HIHIJEJE KLKLMNMN XIBBOPOP EQEQRSRS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111101 1111101 111101101 1111111 1111110111 1111011 1111100101 101111 111110111 11101101 1111010 111101 10101110101 11101101 011010011 001111 01111111001 10100101 0100101101 11010101 1010010101 111101 111010101 0100101 10101101 11100111 1111010101 00101101 0100100101 11011 001110010 1101101 111111111 1011101 1110111 101011 10101100111 1111101 11111011 001011 1111111101 111111110 1101111111 111111010 111111011 111110111 11101111011 01001011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,746 |
Words | 334 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 230 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 93 Views
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"Zu der edlen Yagd" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/200/zu-der-edlen-yagd>.
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