Analysis of An American Addresses Philomela
John Crowe Ransom 1888 (Pulaski) – 1974 (Gambier)
Procne, Philomela, and Itylus,
Your names are liquid, your improbable tale
Is recited in the classic numbers of the nightingale.
Ah, but our numbers are not felicitous,
It goes not liquidly for us!
Perched on a Roman ilex and duly apostrophised,
The nightingale descanted unto Ovid;
She has even appeared to the Teutons, the swilled and gravid;
At Fontainebleau it may be the bird was gallicised;
Never was she baptised.
To England came Philomela with her strain,
Fleeing the hawk her husband ; querulous ghost,
She wanders when he sits heavy on his roost,
Utters herself in the original again,
The untranslatable refrain.
Not to these shores she came, this other Thrace,
Environ barbarous to the royal Attic;
How could her delicate dirge run democratic,
Delivered in a cloudless boundless public place
To a hypermuscular race?
I pernoctated with the Oxford students once,
And in the quadrangles, in the cloisters, on the Cher,
Precociously knocked at antique doors ajar,
Fatuously touched the hems of the Hierophants,
Sick of my dissonance;
I went out to Bagley Wood, I climbed the hill,
Even the moon had slanted off in a twinkling,
I heard the sepulchral owl and a few bells tinkling,
There was no more villainous day to unfulfill,
The diuturnity was still;
Up from the darkest wood where Philomela sat,
Her fairy numbers issued; what then ailed me?
My ears are called capacious, but they failed me,
Her classics registered a little flat!
I rose, and venomously spat.
Philomela, Philomela, lover of song,
I have despaired of thee and am unworthy,
My scene is prose, this people and I are earthy;
Unto more beautiful, persistently more young
Thy fabulous provinces belong.
Scheme | ABBAA CCCCC DCCXD AEEAA AXXAA FGGBF CHHCC IHHXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101001 11110101001 101000101010100 111010110100 111111 1101010101 01001101 1110011010101 1101110111 10111 1101010101 10010101001 11011110111 100100010001 0101 1111111101 1100101010 11010011010 010001010101 1011 111010101 00010010101 11101101 1101101 111100 11111011101 1001110100100 110110011100 1111100111 0111 11010110101 01010101111 11110101111 0101000101 11011 0100101011 11011101010 111111001110 101100010011 110010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,643 |
Words | 281 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 168 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 141 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"An American Addresses Philomela" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22373/an-american-addresses-philomela>.
Discuss this John Crowe Ransom poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In