Analysis of The Lost Leader
Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)
Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat---
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote;
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,
So much was theirs who so little allowed:
How all our copper had gone for his service!
Rags---were they purple, his heart had been proud!
We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die!
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,
Burns, Shelley, were with us,---they watch from their graves!
He alone breaks from the van and the free-men,
---He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!
We shall march prospering,---not thro' his presence;
Songs may inspirit us,---not from his lyre;
Deeds will be done,---while he boasts his quiescence,
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire:
Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,
One task more declined, one more foot-path untrod,
One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
Life's night begins: let him never come back to us!
There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,
Forced praise on our part---the glimmer of twilight,
Never glad confident morning again!
Best fight on well, for we taught him---strike gallantly,
Menace our heart ere we master his own;
Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,
Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!
Scheme | ABABXCACXDXDAEFE XGAGXBXXAXXFXHAH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110111 110111011 10111110011 1101011101 11011111110 1111111001 111010111110 1011011111 11111110111 1011001001 1111011110 11101011011 111110111 11001111111 10111010011 1011101001 11110011110 11111111 111111111 1101101101 11111011111 1110111111 111010010110 11111110111 110111101111 111101001 11110101011 1011001001 111111111100 10101111011 111010110011 1001001101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,534 |
Words | 277 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 16 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 583 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 135 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 07, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 160 Views
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