Analysis of Post festum
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832 (Kvikne) – 1910 (Paris)
A man in coat of ice arrayed
Stood up once by the Arctic Ocean;
The whole earth shook with proud emotion
And honor to the giant paid.
A king came, to him climbing up,
An Order in his one hand bearing:
'Who great become, this sign are wearing.'
-The growling giant said but 'Stop!'
The frightened king fell down again,
Began to weep with features ashen:
'My Order is in this rude fashion
Refused by just the greatest men.
'My dear man, take it, 't is but fit,
Of your king's honor be the warder;
On your breast greater grows the Order,
And we who bear it, too, by it.'-
The Arctic giant was too good,-
A foible oft ascribed to giants,
Who foolish trust in little clients,-
He took it,-while we mocking stood.
But all the kings crept to him then,
And each his Order brought, to know it
Thereby renewed and greater, so it
Gave rank to needy noblemen.
Honi soit
… and all the rest;
Soon Orders covered all his breast.
But oh! they greater grew no tittle,
And he grew so confounded little.
Scheme | ABBA XCCX DBBD EFFE GHHG DEEB AIIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011101 111101010 011111010 01010101 01111101 110011110 110111110 01010111 01011101 011111010 110101110 01110101 111111111 111101010 111101010 01111111 01010111 010101110 110101010 11111101 11011111 011101111 110101011 111101 11 0101 11010111 111101110 011101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 966 |
Words | 195 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 130 Views
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"Post festum" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4390/post-festum>.
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