Analysis of The Unsung Heroes
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
A song for the unsung heroes who rose in the country's need,
When the life of the land was threatened by the slaver's cruel greed,
For the men who came from the cornfield, who came from the plough and the flail,
Who rallied round when they heard the sound of the mighty man of the rail.
They laid them down in the valleys, they laid them down in the wood,
And the world looked on at the work they did, and whispered, 'It is good.'
They fought their way on the hillside, they fought their way in the glen,
And God looked down on their sinews brown, and said, 'I have made them men.'
They went to the blue lines gladly, and the blue lines took them in,
And the men who saw their muskets' fire thought not of their dusky skin.
The gray lines rose and melted beneath their scathing showers,
And they said, ''T is true, they have force to do, these old slave boys of ours.'
Ah, Wagner saw their glory, and Pillow knew their blood,
That poured on a nation's altar, a sacrificial flood.
Port Hudson heard their war-cry that smote its smoke-filled air,
And the old free fires of their savage sires again were kindled there.
They laid them down where the rivers the greening valleys gem.
And the song of the thund'rous cannon was their sole requiem,
And the great smoke wreath that mingled its hue with the dusky cloud,
Was the flag that furled o'er a saddened world, and the sheet that made their shroud.
Oh, Mighty God of the Battles Who held them in Thy hand,
Who gave them strength through the whole day's length, to fight for their native land,
They are lying dead on the hillsides, they are lying dead on the plain,
And we have not fire to smite the lyre and sing them one brief strain.
Give, Thou, some seer the power to sing them in their might,
The men who feared the master's whip, but did not fear the fight;
That he may tell of their virtues as minstrels did of old,
Till the pride of face and the hate of race grow obsolete and cold.
A song for the unsung heroes who stood the awful test,
When the humblest host that the land could boast went forth to meet the best;
A song for the unsung heroes who fell on the bloody sod,
Who fought their way from night to day and struggled up to God.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH XXII JJKK LLMM NNOO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (88%) |
Metre | 011001101100101 101101110101101 1011110111101001 11011110110101101 111100101111001 0011110111010111 11111011111001 011111110111111 111011100011110 001111110111111 01110100111010 011111111111111110 1101110010111 1110101000101 1101111111111 00111011101010101 11111010010101 00110110111100 00111110111011 101111001010011111 11011010111011 1111101111111101 1110110111101101 0111101101011111 1111010111011 01110101111101 11111110110111 101110011111001 01100110110101 10100110111111101 011001101110101 11111111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 2,168 |
Words | 425 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 53 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 213 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 2:08 min read
- 86 Views
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"The Unsung Heroes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28957/the-unsung-heroes>.
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