Analysis of Tyranny.
Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)
'Spring-germs, spring-germs,
I charge you by your life, go back to death.
This glebe is sick, this wind is foul of breath.
Stay: feed the worms.
'Oh! every clod
Is faint, and falters from the war of growth
And crumbles in a dreary dust of sloth,
Unploughed, untrod.
'What need, what need,
To hide with flowers the curse upon the hills,
Or sanctify the banks of sluggish rills
Where vapors breed?
'And -- if needs must --
Advance, O Summer-heats! upon the land,
And bake the bloody mould to shards and sand
And dust.
'Before your birth,
Burn up, O Roses! with your dainty flame.
Good Violets, sweet Violets, hide shame
Below the earth.
'Ye silent Mills,
Reject the bitter kindness of the moss.
O Farms! protest if any tree emboss
The barren hills.
'Young Trade is dead,
And swart Work sullen sits in the hillside fern
And folds his arms that find no bread to earn,
And bows his head.
'Spring-germs, spring-germs,
Albeit the towns have left you place to play,
I charge you, sport not. Winter owns to-day,
Stay: feed the worms.'
Scheme | AbbA cddc ceac cccc fggf ehhe ciic AxcA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1111 1111111111 1111111111 1101 11001 1101010111 0100010111 11 1111 11110010101 1100011101 1101 0111 0111010101 0101011101 01 0111 1111011101 1100110011 0101 1101 0101010101 111110101 0101 1111 0111010011 0111111111 0111 1111 01001111111 1111110111 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,002 |
Words | 187 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 98 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 29 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Tyranny." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/34821/tyranny.>.
Discuss this Sidney Lanier poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In