Analysis of The Brewing Of Soma
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
The fagots blazed, the caldron's smoke
Up through the green wood curled;
'Bring honey from the hollow oak,
Bring milky sap,' the brewers spoke,
In the childhood of the world.
And brewed they well or brewed they ill,
The priests thrust in their rods,
First tasted, and then drank their fill,
And shouted, with one voice and will,
'Behold the drink of gods!'
They drank, and to! in heart and brain
A new, glad life began;
The gray of hair grew young again,
The sick man laughed away his pain,
The cripple leaped and ran.
'Drink, mortals, what the gods have sent,
Forget your long annoy.'
So sang the priests. From tent to tent
The Soma's sacred madness went,
A storm of drunken joy.
Then knew each rapt inebriate
A winged and glorious birth,
Soared upward, with strange joy elate,
Beat, with dazed head, Varuna's gate,
And, sobered, sank to earth.
The land with Soma's praises rang;
On Gihon's banks of shade
Its hymns the dusky maidens sang;
In joy of life or mortal pang
All men to Soma prayed.
The morning twilight of the race
Sends down these matin psalms;
And still with wondering eyes we trace
The simple prayers to Soma's grace,
That Vedic verse embalms.
As in that child-world's early year,
Each after age has striven
By music, incense, vigils drear,
And trance, to bring the skies more near,
Or lift men up to heaven!
Some fever of the blood and brain,
Some self-exalting spell,
The scourger's keen delight of pain,
The Dervish dance, the Orphic strain,
The wild-haired Bacchant's yell,--
The desert's hair-grown hermit sunk
The saner brute below;
The naked Santon, hashish-drunk,
The cloister madness of the monk,
The fakir's torture-show!
And yet the past comes round again,
And new doth old fulfil;
In sensual transports wild as vain
We brew in many a Christian fane
The heathen Soma still!
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!
With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!
Scheme | ABAAB CDCCD EFGEF HIHHI JKJJK LMLLM NXNND OPOOP EQEEQ RSRRS GCEEC TUTTU VWXVW WXWWX YZYYZ X1 2 2 1 3 4 X3 4 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011011 110111 11010101 11010101 001101 01111111 011011 11001111 01011101 010111 11010101 011101 01111101 01110111 010101 11010111 011101 11011111 0110101 011101 1111010 0101001 11011101 111111 010111 0111101 11111 1101101 01111101 111101 0101101 11111 011100111 0101111 1111 10111101 1101110 11001101 01110111 1111110 11010101 110101 0110111 01010101 01111 0111101 010101 01010101 01010101 01101 01011101 01111 010001111 110100101 010101 11010111 0110101 11010101 01011101 0101001 01011111 0101001 01010101 11110101 110101 1101110 111101 11011111 01010100 010011 11110101 1010111 01010111 1111101 111101 11111100 1110101 111010101 011010101 010111 1101110010 110011 11111101 11011010 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,666 |
Words | 491 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 85 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 126 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 2:29 min read
- 686 Views
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