Analysis of A Legacy
No living atom comes at last to naught!
Active in each is still the eternal Thought:
Hold fast to Being if thou wouldst be blest.
Being is without end; for changeless laws
Bind that from which the All its glory draws
Of living treasures endlessly possessed.
Unto the wise of old this truth was known,
Such wisdom knit their noble souls in one;
Then hold thou still the lore of ancient days!
To that high power thou ow'st it, son of man,
By whose decree the earth its circuit ran
And all the planets went their various ways.
Then inward turn at once thy searching eyes;
Thence shalt thou see the central truth arise
From which no lofty soul goes e'er astray;
There shalt thou miss no needful guiding sign-
For conscience lives, and still its light divine
Shall be the sun of all thy moral day.
Next shalt thou trust thy senses' evidence,
And fear from them no treacherous offence
While the mind's watchful eye thy road commands:
With lively pleasure contemplate the scene
And roam securely, teachable, serene,
At will throughout a world of fruitful lands.
Enjoy in moderation all life gives:
Where it rejoices in each thing that lives
Let reason be thy guide and make thee see.
Then shall the distant past be present still,
The future, ere it comes, thy vision fill-
Each single moment touch eternity.
Then at the last shalt thou achieve thy quest,
And in one final, firm conviction rest:
What bears for thee true fruit alone is true.
Prove all things, watch the movement of the world
As down the various ways its tribes are whirled;
Take thou thy stand among the chosen few.
Thus hath it been of old; in solitude
The artist shaped what thing to him seemed good,
The wise man hearkened to his own soul's voice.
Thus also shalt thou find thy greatest bliss;
To lead where the elect shall follow-this
And this alone is worth a hero's choice.
Scheme | AABCCB XXDEEDF FGHHGXCIJJIKKLMMLBBNOONXXPQQP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011111 10011100101 1111011111 101011111 1111011101 1101010001 1001111111 1101110101 1111011101 111101111111 1101011101 01010111001 1101111101 1111010101 11110111001 1111110101 1101011101 1101111101 1111110100 011111001 1011011101 110101001 0101010001 1101011101 010010111 11101111 1101110111 1101011101 0101111101 1101010100 1101110111 0011010101 1111110111 1111010101 11010011111 1111010101 111111010 0101111111 011111111 1101111101 1110011101 0101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,805 |
Words | 334 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 7, 29 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 486 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 111 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 20, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 231 Views
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"A Legacy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21572/a-legacy>.
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