Analysis of To the United States Senate
Vachel Lindsay 1879 (Springfield) – 1931 (Springfield)
And must the Senator from Illinois
Be this squat thing, with blinking, half-closed eyes?
This brazen gutter idol, reared to power
Upon a leering pyramid of lies?
And must the Senator from Illinois
Be the world's proverb of successful shame,
Dazzling all State house flies that steal and steal,
Who, when the sad State spares them, count it fame?
If once or twice within his new won hall
His vote had counted for the broken men;
If in his early days he wrought some good —
We might a great soul's sins forgive him then.
But must the Senator from Illinois
Be vindicated by fat kings of gold?
And must he be belauded by the smirched,
The sleek, uncanny chiefs in lies grown old?
Be warned, O wanton ones, who shielded him —
Black wrath awaits. You all shall eat the dust.
You dare not say: "To-morrow will bring peace;
Let us make merry, and go forth in lust."
What will you trading frogs do on a day
When Armageddon thunders thro' the land;
When each sad patriot rises, mad with shame,
His ballot or his musket in his hand?
In the distracted states from which you came
The day is big with war hopes fierce and strange;
Our iron Chicagos and our grimy mines
Rumble with hate and love and solemn change.
Too many weary men shed honest tears,
Ground by machines that give the Senate ease.
Too many little babes with bleeding hands
Have heaped the fruits of empire on your knees.
And swine within the Senate in this day,
When all the smothering by-streets weep and wail;
When wisdom breaks the hearts of her best sons;
When kingly men, voting for truth, may fail: —
These are a portent and a call to arms.
Our protest turns into a battle cry:
"Our shame must end, our States be free and clean;
And in this war we choose to live and die."
Scheme | Abxb Acxc xded afef xgxg hici cjxj xkxk hlxl xmxm |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (90%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 010100101 1111110111 11010101110 010110011 010100101 1011010101 10011111101 1101111111 1111011111 1111010101 1011011111 1101110111 110100101 1100011111 01111101 0101010111 1111011101 1101111101 1111110111 1111001101 1111011101 101010101 11110010111 1101110011 0001011111 0111111101 10101010101 1011010101 1101011101 1101110101 1101011101 11011100111 0101010011 11010011101 1101011011 1101101111 1101000111 1011010101 101111011101 0011111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,745 |
Words | 328 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 135 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 125 Views
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"To the United States Senate" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37422/to-the-united-states-senate>.
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