Analysis of Disarmament
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
"Put up the sword!" The voice of Christ once more
Speaks, in the pauses of the cannon's roar,
O'er fields of corn by fiery sickles reaped
And left dry ashes; over trenches heaped
With nameless dead; o'er cities starving slow
Under a rain of fire; through wards of woe
Down which a groaning diapason runs
From tortured brothers, husbands, lovers, sons
Of desolate women in their far-off homes
Waiting to hear the step that never comes!
O men and brothers! let that voice be heard.
War fails, try peace; put up the useless sword!
Fear not the end. There is a story told
In Eastern tents, when autumn nights grow cold,
And round the fire the Mongol shepherds sit
With grave responses listening unto it:
Once, on the errands of his mercy bent,
Buddha, the holy and benevolent,
Met a fell monster, huge and fierce of look,
Whose awful voice the hills and forests shook,
"O son of peace!" the giant cried, "thy fate
Is sealed at last, and love shall yield to hate."
The unarmed Buddha looking, with no trace
Of fear and anger, in the monster's face,
In pity said, "Poor fiend, even thee I love."
Lo! as he spake the sky-tall terror sank
To hand-breadth size; the huge abhorrence shrank
Into the form and fashion of a dove
And where the thunder of its rage was heard,
Circling above him sweetly sang the bird:
"Hate hath no harm for love," so ran the song,
"And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong!"
Scheme | AABBCCDDXXEX FFGGXXHHIIJJKLLKEEMM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101011111 1001010101 101111100101 0111010101 11011010101 10011101111 1101011 1101010101 11001001111 1011011101 1101011111 1111110101 1101110101 0101110111 01010010101 11010100101 1101011101 1001000100 1011010111 1101010101 1111010111 1111011111 0011010111 110100011 01011110111 1111011101 1111010101 0101010101 0101011111 10001110101 1111111101 011101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,371 |
Words | 261 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 20 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 540 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 127 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 54 Views
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"Disarmament" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22885/disarmament>.
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