Analysis of Our Duty
Bernard O'Dowd 1866 (Beaufort) – 1953
Yet what were Love if man remains unfree,
And woman's sunshine sordid merchandise:
If children's Hope is blasted ere they see
Its shoots of youth from out the branchlets rise:
If thought is chained, and gagged is Speech, and Lies
Enthroned as Law befoul posterity,
And haggard Sin's ubiquitous disguise
Insults the face of God where'er men be?
Ay, what were Love, my love, did we not love
Our stricken brothers so, as to resign
For Its own sake, the foison of Its dower:
That, so, we two may help them mount above
These layers of charnel air in which they pine,
To seek with us the Presence and the Power?
Scheme | ABCBBCBC DEADEA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111011 01011010 1101110111 1111110101 1111011101 11110100 0101010001 0101111011 1101111111 10101011101 111101111 1111111101 1101110111 11110100010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 637 |
Words | 113 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 237 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 60 Views
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"Our Duty" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4281/our-duty>.
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