Analysis of The Cable Hymn
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
O lonely bay of Trinity,
O dreary shores, give ear!
Lean down unto the white-lipped sea
The voice of God to hear!
From world to world His couriers fly,
Thought-winged and shod with fire;
The angel of His stormy sky
Rides down the sunken wire.
What saith the herald of the Lord?
'The world's long strife is done;
Close wedded by that mystic cord,
Its continents are one.
'And one in heart, as one in blood,
Shall all her peoples be;
The hands of human brotherhood
Are clasped beneath the sea.
'Through Orient seas, o'er Afric's plain
And Asian mountains borne,
The vigor of the Northern brain
Shall nerve the world outworn.
'From clime to clime, from shore to shore,
Shall thrill the magic thread;
The new Prometheus steals once more
The fire that wakes the dead.'
Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat
From answering beach to beach;
Fuse nations in thy kindly heat,
And melt the chains of each!
Wild terror of the sky above,
Glide tamed and dumb below!
Bear gently, Ocean's carrier-dove,
Thy errands to and fro.
Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord,
Beneath the deep so far,
The bridal robe of earth's accord,
The funeral shroud of war!
For lo! the fall of Ocean's wall
Space mocked and time outrun;
And round the world the thought of all
Is as the thought of one!
The poles unite, the zones agree,
The tongues of striving cease;
As on the Sea of Galilee
The Christ is whispering, Peace!
'Glad prophecy! to this at last,'
The Reader said, 'shall all things come.
Forgotten be the bugle's blast,
And battle-music of the drum.
'A little while the world may run
Its old mad way, with needle-gun
And iron-clad, but truth, at last, shall reign
The cradle-song of Christ was never sung in vain!'
Shifting his scattered papers, 'Here,'
He said, as died the faint applause,
'Is something that I found last year
Down on the island known as Orr's.
I had it from a fair-haired girl
Who, oddly, bore the name of Pearl,
(As if by some droll freak of circumstance,)
Classic, or wellnigh so, in Harriet Stowe's romance.'
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XAXA GXGF HIHI JKJK LMLM EXEH NFNF AOAO PQPQ FFGG BXXORRSS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 11011100 110111 11100111 011111 111111001 1101110 01011101 1101010 11010101 011111 11011101 110011 01011101 110101 0111010 110101 11011011 010101 01010101 11011 11111111 110101 011111 0101101 11111101 1100111 11001101 010111 11010101 110101 110101001 110101 11110101 010111 01011101 0100111 11011101 110101 01010111 110111 0110101 011101 1101110 0111001 11001111 01011111 0101011 01010101 01010111 11111101 0101111111 010111110101 10110101 11110101 11011111 11010111 11110111 11010111 111111110 101110100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,964 |
Words | 369 |
Sentences | 28 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 8 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:52 min read
- 31 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Cable Hymn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23061/the-cable-hymn>.
Discuss this John Greenleaf Whittier 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