Analysis of Columbian Ode
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
I.
FOUR hundred years ago a tangled waste
Lay sleeping on the west Atlantic's side;
Their devious ways the Old World's millions traced
Content, and loved, and labored, dared and died.
While students still believed the charts they conned,
And revelled in their thriftless ignorance,
Nor dreamed of other lands that lay beyond
Old Ocean's dense, indefinite expanse.
II.
BUT deep within her heart old Nature knew
That she had once arrayed, at Earth's behest,
Another offspring, fine and fair to view,—
The chosen suckling of the mother's breast.
The child was wrapped in vestments soft and fine,
Each fold a work of Nature's matchless art;
The mother looked on it with love divine,
And strained the loved one closely to her heart.
And there it lay, and with the warmth grew strong
And hearty, by the salt sea breezes fanned,
Till Time with mellowing touches passed along,
And changed the infant to a mighty land.
III.
BUT men knew naught of this, till there arose
That mighty mariner, the Genoese,
Who dared to try, in spite of fears and foes,
The unknown fortunes of unsounded seas.
O noblest of Italia's sons, thy bark
Went not alone into that shrouding night!
O dauntless darer of the rayless dark,
The world sailed with thee to eternal light!
The deer-haunts that with game were crowded then
To-day are tilled and cultivated lands;
The schoolhouse tow'rs where Bruin had his den,
And where the wigwam stood the chapel stands;
The place that nurtured men of savage mien
Now teems with men of Nature's noblest types;
Where moved the forest-foliage banner green,
Now flutters in the breeze the stars and stripes!
Scheme | ABCBCDEDFAGHGHIJIJKLKLAMNMOPQPQRSRSTUTU |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 1101010101 1101010101 11001011101 1001010101 1101010111 01011100 1111011101 1101010001 1 1101011101 1111011101 010110111 0101010101 011101101 110111011 0101111101 0101110101 0111010111 0101011101 11110010101 0101010101 1 1111111101 110100010 1111011101 00110111 11011111 1101011101 1111011 0111110101 0111110101 111101001 011110111 0101010101 0111011101 1111110101 1101010101 1100010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,583 |
Words | 280 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 39 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,279 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 277 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 61 Views
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"Columbian Ode" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28683/columbian-ode>.
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