Analysis of The Haschish
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Of all that Orient lands can vaunt
Of marvels with our own competing,
The strangest is the Haschish plant,
And what will follow on its eating.
What pictures to the taster rise,
Of Dervish or of Almeh dances!
Of Eblis, or of Paradise,
Set all aglow with Houri glances!
The poppy visions of Cathay,
The heavy beer-trance of the Suabian;
The wizard lights and demon play
Of nights Walpurgis and Arabian!
The Mollah and the Christian dog
Change place in mad metempsychosis;
The Muezzin climbs the synagogue,
The Rabbi shakes his beard at Moses!
The Arab by his desert well
Sits choosing from some Caliph's daughters,
And hears his single camel's bell
Sound welcome to his regal quarters.
The Koran's reader makes complaint
Of Shitan dancing on and off it;
The robber offers alms, the saint
Drinks Tokay and blasphemes the Prophet.
Such scenes that Eastern plant awakes;
But we have one ordained to beat it,
The Haschish of the West, which makes
Or fools or knaves of all who eat it.
The preacher eats, and straight appears
His Bible in a new translation;
Its angels negro overseers,
And Heaven itself a snug plantation!
The man of peace, about whose dreams
The sweet millennial angels cluster,
Tastes the mad weed, and plots and schemes,
A raving Cuban filibuster!
The noisiest Democrat, with ease,
It turns to Slavery's parish beadle;
The shrewdest statesman eats and sees
Due southward point the polar needle.
The Judge partakes, and sits erelong
Upon his bench a railing blackguard;
Decides off-hand that right is wrong,
And reads the ten commandments backward.
O potent plant! so rare a taste
Has never Turk or Gentoo gotten;
The hempen Haschish of the East
Is powerless to our Western Cotton!
Scheme | ABABCDEFGHGHICIJKLKLAAAACAMANHLHOPOPQRQRBASAAHAH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110111 1101101010 0101011 011101110 11010101 11011110 111110 11011110 01010101 01011101 01010101 11100100 0100101 11011 011010 01111110 01011101 11011110 01110101 110111010 0110101 11101011 01010101 1101010 1111011 111101111 0110111 111111111 01010101 110001010 11010010 010010110 01110111 0101001010 10110101 01010100 01001011 11111010 01010101 110101010 011011 01110101 1111111 010101010 11011101 11011110 0101101 11001101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,654 |
Words | 292 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 48 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,355 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 290 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:28 min read
- 153 Views
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"The Haschish" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23110/the-haschish>.
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