Analysis of Oh, when will you stand forth?
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832 (Kvikne) – 1910 (Paris)
Oh, when will you stand forth, who with strength can bring aid,
To strike down the injustice and lies
That my house have beset, and with malice blockade
Every pathway I out for my powers have laid,
And would hidden means find
With deceit and with hate
To set watch on my mind
And defile every plate
In my beautiful home where defenseless we wait?
Oh, when will you stand forth? This detraction through years
For my people has made me an oaf,
Hides my poetry's fount in the fog of its fleers,
So it merely a pool of self-worship appears;
Like a clumsy troll I
Am contemned with affront,
Whom all 'cultured' folk fly,
Or yet gather to hunt,
That their hunger of hate at a feast they may blunt.
When I publish a book: 'It is half like himself;'
If I speak, 't is for vanity's sake.
What I build in the stage-world of fancy's free elf
Is but formed from my fatuous self.
When for faith I contend
And our land's ancient ways,
When the bridge I defend
From our fathers' great days,
'Tis because my poor breast no king's 'Order' displays.
Oh, when will you stand forth, who shall sunder in twain
All this slander so stifling and foul,
And shall sink in the sea all the terror insane
That they have of heart-passion and will-wielding brain,-
And with love shall enfold
A soul's faith wide and deep,
That in want and in cold
Would its morning-watch keep
Undismayed, till the light all the host shall ensweep?
Come, thou Spirit of Norway, God-given of yore
In the stout giant-conquering Thor!
While the lightning thou ridest, thy answer's loud roar
Drowns the din that the dwarfs in defiance outpour;
Thou canst waken with might
All our longings to soar,
Thou canst strengthen in right
What united we swore,
When at Hafur thy standard in honor we bore.
Hail, thou Spirit of Norway! To think but of thee
Makes so small all the small things I felt.
To thy coming I hallow me, wholly to thee,
And I humbly look up to thy face, unto thee,
And I pray for a song
With thy tongue's stirring sound,
That I true may and strong
In the crisis be found,
To rouse heroes for thee on our forefathers' ground.
Scheme | ABAACDCDD EFBEGHGHH FXFFIJIJJ KXKKLMLMM NNNNONONN PXPPQRQRR |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111111111 111001001 11110101101 100111111011 011011 101011 111111 011001 011001101011 1111111111 111011111 1111001111 111001111001 101011 11101 111011 111011 111011101111 111001111101 11111111 11100111111 111111001 111101 0101101 101101 1101011 101111111001 111111111001 111011001 011001101001 111111001101 011101 011101 101001 111011 110110111 11101111011 001101001 10101111011 10110100101 111011 1101011 111001 101011 11111001011 11101111111 111101111 111011011011 011011111101 011101 111101 111101 001011 111011110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,039 |
Words | 393 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 270 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:00 min read
- 70 Views
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"Oh, when will you stand forth?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4377/oh%2C-when-will-you-stand-forth%3F>.
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