Analysis of Prometheus
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
Prometheus stole from Heaven the sacred fire
And swept to earth with it o'er land and sea.
He lit the vestal flames of poesy,
Content, for this, to brave celestial ire.
Wroth were the gods, and with eternal hate
Pursued the fearless one who ravished Heaven
That earth might hold in fee the perfect leaven
To lift men's souls above their low estate.
But judge you now, when poets wield the pen,
Think you not well the wrong has been repaired?
'Twas all in vain that ill Prometheus fared:
The fire has been returned to Heaven again!
We have no singers like the ones whose note
Gave challenge to the noblest warbler's song.
We have no voice so mellow, sweet, and strong
As that which broke from Shelley's golden throat.
The measure of our songs is our desires:
We tinkle where old poets used to storm.
We lack their substance tho' we keep their form:
We strum our banjo-strings and call them lyres.
Scheme | XAAX BCCB DEED FGGF XHHA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (80%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111001010 01111110101 11010111 1011110101 1001010101 0101011110 11110100110 1111011101 1111110101 1111011101 11011111 010110111001 1111010111 110101011 1111110101 1111110101 0101101110010 1101110111 1111011111 1110110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 884 |
Words | 165 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 141 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 16, 2023
- 50 sec read
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