Analysis of The Plougher
Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)
Sunset and silence! A man: around him earth savage, earth broken;
Beside him two horses -- a plough!
Earth savage, earth broken, the brutes, the dawn man there in the sunset,
And the Plough that is twin to the Sword, that is founder of cities!
"Brute-tamer, plough-maker, earth-breaker! Can'st hear? There are ages
between us.
Is it praying you are as you stand there alone in the sunset?
"Surely our sky-born gods can be naught to you, earth child and earth
master?
Surely your thoughts are of Pan, or of Wotan, or Dana?
"Yet why give thoughts to the gods? Has Pan led your brutes where they
stumble?
Has Dana numbed pain of the child-bed, or Wotan put hands to your plough?
"What matter your foolish reply! O man, standing lone and bowed earthward,
Your task is a day near its close. Give thanks to the night-given God."
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Slowly the darkness falls, the broken lands blend with the savage;
The brute-tamer stands by the brutes, a head's breadth only above them.
A head's breadth? Ay, but therein is hell's depth, and the height up to
heaven,
And the thrones of the gods and their halls, their chariots, purples, and
splendors.
Scheme | ABCDEFCGHIJKBCL MNOAPD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101001011110110 01111001 110110010111001 0011111011110110 1101101101111110 011 111011111101001 1010111111111101 10 10111111110110 11111011111111 10 11011101111011111 1101100111101011 1110111111101101 1 100101010111010 0110110101110011 011110111100111 10 0011010111100100 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,167 |
Words | 203 |
Sentences | 35 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 22 |
Lines Amount | 22 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 866 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 216 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 69 Views
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