Analysis of The Sick God
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
In days when men had joy of war,
A God of Battles sped each mortal jar;
The peoples pledged him heart and hand,
From Israel's land to isles afar.
His crimson form, with clang and chime,
Flashed on each murk and murderous meeting-time,
And kings invoked, for rape and raid,
His fearsome aid in rune and rhyme.
On bruise and blood-hole, scar and seam,
On blade and bolt, he flung his fulgid beam:
His haloes rayed the very gore,
And corpses wore his glory-gleam.
Often an early King or Queen,
And storied hero onward, knew his sheen;
'Twas glimpsed by Wolfe, by Ney anon,
And Nelson on his blue demesne.
But new light spread. That god's gold nimb
And blazon have waned dimmer and more dim;
Even his flushed form begins to fade,
Till but a shade is left of him.
That modern meditation broke
His spell, that penmen's pleadings dealt a stroke,
Say some; and some that crimes too dire
Did much to mire his crimson cloak.
Yea, seeds of crescive sympathy
Were sown by those more excellent than he,
Long known, though long contemned till then -
The gods of men in amity.
Souls have grown seers, and thought out-brings
The mournful many-sidedness of things
With foes as friends, enfeebling ires
And fury-fires by gaingivings!
He scarce impassions champions now;
They do and dare, but tensely--pale of brow;
And would they fain uplift the arm
Of that faint form they know not how.
Yet wars arise, though zest grows cold;
Wherefore, at whiles, as 'twere in ancient mould
He looms, bepatched with paint and lath;
But never hath he seemed the old!
Let men rejoice, let men deplore.
The lurid Deity of heretofore
Succumbs to one of saner nod;
The Battle-god is god no more.
Scheme | ABXB CCDC EEAE FFFF CGDG HHXH IIXI JJJJ KKXK LLXL AAXA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (27%) |
Metre | 01111111 0111011101 01011101 11011101 11011101 11110100101 01011101 11010101 11011101 110111111 1110101 01011101 10110111 0101010111 1111111 0101111 11111111 011110011 101110111 11011111 1100101 111110101 11011111 11111101 1111100 0111110011 1111111 01110100 11110111 01010111 111111 0101011 1111001 1101110111 01111001 11111111 11011111 111110101 1111101 11011101 11011101 010100101 01111101 01011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,799 |
Words | 310 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 118 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 173 Views
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