Analysis of A Monument For The Soldiers
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
A monument for the Soldiers!
And what will ye build it of?
Can ye build it of marble, or brass, or bronze,
Outlasting the Soldiers' love?
Can ye glorify it with legends
As grand as their blood hath writ
From the inmost shrine of this land of thine
To the outermost verge of it?
And the answer came: We would build it
Out of our hopes made sure,
And out of our purest prayers and tears,
And out of our faith secure:
We would build it out of the great white truths
Their death hath sanctified,
And the sculptured forms of the men in arms,
And their faces ere they died.
And what heroic figures
Can the sculptor carve in stone?
Can the marble breast be made to bleed,
And the marble lips to moan?
Can the marble brow be fevered?
And the marble eyes be graved
To look their last, as the flag floats past,
On the country they have saved?
And the answer came: The figures
Shall all be fair and brave,
And, as befitting, as pure and white
As the stars above their grave!
The marble lips, and breast and brow
Whereon the laurel lies,
Bequeath us right to guard the flight
Of the old flag in the skies!
A monument for the Soldiers!
Built of a people's love,
And blazoned and decked and panoplied
With the hearts ye build it oft
And see that ye build it stately,
In pillar and niche and gate,
And high in pose as the souls of those
It would commemorate!
Scheme | Abxbxcxc cdxdxcxx aexexcxx afgfxhgh Abcxxixi |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 01001010 0111111 11111101111 100101 11101110 1111111 101111111 1010111 001011111 1110111 0111010101 01110101 1111110111 1111 0010110101 0110111 0101010 1010101 101011111 0010111 10101110 0010111 111110111 1010111 00101010 111101 010101101 1010111 01010101 10101 01111101 1011001 01001010 110101 010101 1011111 01111110 0100101 010110111 11010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,312 |
Words | 262 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 210 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 100 Views
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"A Monument For The Soldiers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20785/a-monument-for-the-soldiers>.
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