Analysis of The Female Martyr
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
'BRING out your dead!' The midnight street
Heard and gave back the hoarse, low call;
Harsh fell the tread of hasty feet,
Glanced through the dark the coarse white sheet,
Her coffin and her pall.
'What--only one!' the brutal hack-man said,
As, with an oath, he spurned away the dead.
How sunk the inmost hearts of all,
As rolled that dead-cart slowly by,
With creaking wheel and harsh hoof-fall!
The dying turned him to the wall,
To hear it and to die!
Onward it rolled; while oft its driver stayed,
And hoarsely clamored, 'Ho! bring out your dead.'
It paused beside the burial-place;
'Toss in your load!' and it was done.
With quick hand and averted face,
Hastily to the grave's embrace
They cast them, one by one,
Stranger and friend, the evil and the just,
Together trodden in the churchyard dust.
And thou, young martyr! thou wast there;
No white-robed sisters round thee trod,
Nor holy hymn, nor funeral prayer
Rose through the damp and noisome air,
Giving thee to thy God;
Nor flower, nor cross, nor hallowed taper gave
Grace to the dead, and beauty to the grave!
Yet, gentle sufferer! there shall be,
In every heart of kindly feeling,
A rite as holy paid to thee
As if beneath the convent-tree
Thy sisterhood were kneeling,
At vesper hours, like sorrowing angels, keeping
Their tearful watch around thy place of sleeping.
For thou wast one in whom the light
Of Heaven's own love was kindled well;
Enduring with a martyr's might,
Through weary day and wakeful night,
Far more than words may tell
Gentle, and meek, and lowly, and unknown,
Thy mercies measured by thy God alone!
Where manly hearts were failing, where
The throngful street grew foul with death,
O high-souled martyr! thou wast there,
Inhaling, from the loathsome air,
Poison with every breath.
Yet shrinking not from offices of dread
For the wrung dying, and the unconscious dead.
And, where the sickly taper shed
Its light through vapors, damp, confined,
Hushed as a seraph's fell thy tread,
A new Electra by the bed
Of suffering human-kind!
Pointing the spirit, in its dark dismay,
To that pure hope which fadeth not away.
Innocent teacher of the high
And holy mysteries of Heaven!
How turned to thee each glazing eye,
In mute and awful sympathy,
As thy low prayers were given;
And the o'er-hovering Spoiler wore, the while,
An angel's features, a deliverer's smile!
A blessed task! and worthy one
Who, turning from the world, as thou,
Before life's pathway had begun
To leave its spring-time flower and sun,
Had sealed her early vow;
Giving to God her beauty and her youth,
Her pure affections and her guileless truth.
Earth may not claim thee. Nothing here
Could be for thee a meet reward;
Thine is a treasure far more dear
Eye hath not seen it, nor the ear
Of living mortal heard
The joys prepared, the promised bliss above,
The holy presence of Eternal Love!
Sleep on in peace. The earth has not
A nobler name than thine shall be.
The deeds by martial manhood wrought,
The lofty energies of thought,
The fire of poesy,
These have but frail and fading honors; thine
Shall Time unto Eternity consign.
Yea, and when thrones shall crumble down,
And human pride and grandeur fall,
The herald's line of long renown,
The mitre and the kingly crown,--
Perishing glories all!
The pure devotion of thy generous heart
Shall live in Heaven, of which it was a part.
Scheme | ABAAXCC BDBBDXC EFEEFGG HIHHIJJ KLKKLLL MNMMNOO HPHHPCC CQCCQRR DFDKFSS FTFFTUU VXXVXWW XKXXEYY ZBZZB1 1 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011 10110111 11011101 11010111 010001 1101010111 1111110101 1101111 11111101 11010111 01011101 111011 1011111101 011011111 110101001 10110111 11100101 10010101 111111 1001010001 010100011 01110111 11110111 110111001 1101011 101111 11011110101 1101010101 110100111 0100111010 01110111 11010101 1100010 11010111010 11010111110 11110101 110111101 0101011 1101011 111111 1001010001 1101011101 11010101 0111111 11110111 01010101 1011001 1101110011 1011000101 01010101 11110101 1101111 01010101 1100101 1001001101 111111101 10010101 010100110 11111101 01010100 1111010 001010010101 1110011 0110101 11010111 0111101 111111001 110101 1011010001 0101000101 11111101 11110101 11010111 11111101 110101 0101010101 0101010101 11010111 01011111 0111011 01010011 01011 1111010101 1110010001 10111101 01010011 01011101 01000101 100101 01010111001 11010111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,245 |
Words | 592 |
Sentences | 33 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 91 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 200 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:59 min read
- 103 Views
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"The Female Martyr" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23096/the-female-martyr>.
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