Analysis of The Palm-Tree
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Is it the palm, the cocoa-palm,
On the Indian Sea, by the isles of balm?
Or is it a ship in the breezeless calm?
A ship whose keel is of palm beneath,
Whose ribs of palm have a palm-bark sheath,
And a rudder of palm it steereth with.
Branches of palm are its spars and rails,
Fibres of palm are its woven sails,
And the rope is of palm that idly trails!
What does the good ship bear so well?
The cocoa-nut with its stony shell,
And the milky sap of its inner cell.
What are its jars, so smooth and fine,
But hollowed nuts, filled with oil and wine,
And the cabbage that ripens under the Line?
Who smokes his nargileh, cool and calm?
The master, whose cunning and skill could charm
Cargo and ship from the bounteous palm.
In the cabin he sits on a palm-mat soft,
From a beaker of palm his drink is quaffed,
And a palm-thatch shields from the sun aloft!
His dress is woven of palmy strands,
And he holds a palm-leaf scroll in his hands,
Traced with the Prophet's wise commands!
The turban folded about his head
Was daintily wrought of the palm-leaf braid,
And the fan that cools him of palm was made.
Of threads of palm was the carpet spun
Whereon he kneels when the day is done,
And the foreheads of Islam are bowed as one!
To him the palm is a gift divine,
Wherein all uses of man combine,--
House, and raiment, and food, and wine!
And, in the hour of his great release,
His need of the palm shall only cease
With the shroud wherein he lieth in peace.
'Allah il Allah!' he sings his psalm,
On the Indian Sea, by the isles of balm;
'Thanks to Allah who gives the palm!'
Scheme | aAa bbx ccc ddd eee axa ffx ggg xhh iii eee jjj xAa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 10100110111 111010011 011111101 111110111 001011111 101111101 11111101 0011111101 11011111 010111101 0010111101 11111101 110111101 0010111001 1111101 0101100111 1011011 00101110111 1010111111 0011110101 11110111 0110111011 1101101 010100111 11110111 0011111111 111110101 11110111 0011011111 110110101 011101110 1010101 0001011101 111011101 101011101 101101111 10100110111 11101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,538 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 93 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 27, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 98 Views
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"The Palm-Tree" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23157/the-palm-tree>.
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