Analysis of I Hear an Army Charging Upon the Land
James Joyce 1882 (Rathgar) – 1941 (Zürich)
I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
Scheme | ABAB CXCX DXDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (33%) |
Metre | 11110100101 00101101010111 10001100111 010011100101 1110011101 11011110111010 1101110101 10100101101110 11100101111 1111010110101 11111101101 1111111111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 664 |
Words | 124 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 162 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 160 Views
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"I Hear an Army Charging Upon the Land" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20167/i-hear-an-army-charging-upon-the-land>.
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