Analysis of Men Of The High North
Men of the High North, the wild sky is blazing;
Islands of opal float on silver seas;
Swift splendors kindle, barbaric, amazing;
Pale ports of amber, golden argosies.
Ringed all around us the proud peaks are glowing;
Fierce chiefs in council, their wigwam the sky;
Far, far below us the big Yukon flowing,
Like threaded quicksilver, gleams to the eye.
Men of the High North, you who have known it;
You in whose hearts its splendors have abode;
Can you renounce it, can you disown it?
Can you forget it, its glory and its goad?
Where is the hardship, where is the pain of it?
Lost in the limbo of things you've forgot;
Only remain the guerdon and gain of it;
Zest of the foray, and God, how you fought!
You who have made good, you foreign faring;
You money magic to far lands has whirled;
Can you forget those days of vast daring,
There with your soul on the Top o' the World?
Nights when no peril could keep you awake on
Spruce boughs you spread for your couch in the snow;
Taste all your feasts like the beans and the bacon
Fried at the camp-fire at forty below?
Can you remember your huskies all going,
Barking with joy and their brushes in air;
You in your parka, glad-eyed and glowing,
Monarch, your subjects the wolf and the bear?
Monarch, your kingdom unravisht and gleaming;
Mountains your throne, and a river your car;
Crash of a bull moose to rouse you from dreaming;
Forest your couch, and your candle a star.
You who this faint day the High North is luring
Unto her vastness, taintlessly sweet;
You who are steel-braced, straight-lipped, enduring,
Dreadless in danger and dire in defeat:
Honor the High North ever and ever,
Whether she crown you, or whether she slay;
Suffer her fury, cherish and love her--
He who would rule he must learn to obey.
Men of the High North, fierce mountains love you;
Proud rivers leap when you ride on their breast.
See, the austere sky, pensive above you,
Dons all her jewels to smile on your rest.
Children of Freedom, scornful of frontiers,
We who are weaklings honor your worth.
Lords of the wilderness, Princes of Pioneers,
Let's have a rouse that will ring round the earth.
Scheme | ABABACAC DEDEDXDX XFAFXGXG AHAHAIAI AJAJKLKL MNMNOPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011011110 1011011101 1110010010 11110101 11011011110 1101011001 1101101110 1101101101 1101111111 101111101 1101111011 11011110011 11010110111 1001011101 1001010111 1101001111 1111111010 1101011111 1101111110 1111101101 11110111011 1111111001 11111010010 11011011001 1101011110 1011011001 1011011010 111001001 11101010 1011001011 11011111110 1011011001 11111011110 1001011 1111111010 101001001 1001110010 1011111011 1001010010 1111111101 1101111011 1101111111 1001110011 1101011111 1011010101 11111011 11010010101 1101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,275 |
Words | 387 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 276 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 1:56 min read
- 145 Views
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"Men Of The High North" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32245/men-of-the-high-north>.
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