Analysis of O Star Of France
O STAR of France!
The brightness of thy hope and strength and fame,
Like some proud ship that led the fleet so long,
Beseems to-day a wreck, driven by the gale--a mastless hulk;
And 'mid its teeming, madden'd, half-drown'd crowds,
Nor helm nor helmsman.
Dim, smitten star!
Orb not of France alone--pale symbol of my soul, its dearest hopes,
The struggle and the daring--rage divine for liberty,
Of aspirations toward the far ideal--enthusiast's dreams of
brotherhood, 10
Of terror to the tyrant and the priest.
Star crucified! by traitors sold!
Star panting o'er a land of death--heroic land!
Strange, passionate, mocking, frivolous land.
Miserable! yet for thy errors, vanities, sins, I will not now rebuke
thee;
Thy unexampled woes and pangs have quell'd them all,
And left thee sacred.
In that amid thy many faults, thou ever aimedest highly,
In that thou wouldst not really sell thyself, however great the
price,
In that thou surely wakedst weeping from thy drugg'd sleep, 20
In that alone, among thy sisters, thou, Giantess, didst rend the ones
that shamed thee,
In that thou couldst not, wouldst not, wear the usual chains,
This cross, thy livid face, thy pierced hands and feet,
The spear thrust in thy side.
O star! O ship of France, beat back and baffled long!
Bear up, O smitten orb! O ship, continue on!
Sure, as the ship of all, the Earth itself,
Product of deathly fire and turbulent chaos,
Forth from its spasms of fury and its poisons,
Issuing at last in perfect power and beauty, 30
Onward, beneath the sun, following its course,
So thee, O ship of France!
Finish'd the days, the clouds dispell'd,
The travail o'er, the long-sought extrication,
When lo! reborn, high o'er the European world,
(In gladness, answering thence, as face afar to face, reflecting
ours, Columbia,)
Again thy star, O France--fair, lustrous star,
In heavenly peace, clearer, more bright than ever,
Shall beam immortal.
Scheme | AXBXXX CXDXXX XEE XDXX DFXXGDXXX BX XXGDXA XXXXFCXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111 0101110101 1111110111 1110110101011 011101111 1111 1101 1111011101111101 01000101011100 1010010101111 10 1101010001 1101101 1101001110101 1100101001 1000111101001111101 1 111011111 01110 01011101110110 0111110111010 1 011101101111 010101110111101 111 0111111101001 11110111101 011011 111111110101 111101110101 1101110101 1011010010010 111101100110 1001100110010 10010110011 111111 10010101 00110011010 111111000101 011001110111010 100100 0111111101 010011011110 11010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,112 |
Words | 324 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 3, 4, 9, 2, 6, 8 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 185 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 93 Views
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"O Star Of France" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38083/o-star-of-france>.
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