Analysis of The poet
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832 (Kvikne) – 1910 (Paris)
The poet does the prophet's deeds;
In times of need with new life pregnant,
When strife and suffering are regnant,
His faith with light ideal leads.
The past its heroes round him posts,
He rallies now the present's hosts,
The future opes
Before his eyes,
Its pictured hopes
He prophesies.
Ever his people's forces vernal
The poet frees,-by right eternal.
He turns the people's trust to doubt
Of heathendom and Moloch-terror;
'Neath thought of God, cold-gray with error,
He sees grow green each fresh, new sprout.
Set free, these spread abroad, above,
Bear fruit of power and of love
In each man's soul,
And make it warm
And make it whole,
In wrath transform,
Till light and courage fill the nation:
In
life
is God's best revelation.
Away the kingly cloak he tears
And on the people's shoulder places,
So it no more need make grimaces
To borrowed clothes some highness wears,
But be itself its majesty
In right of spirit-dynasty,
In saga's light
On heart and brain,
In men of might
From its loins ta'en,
In will unbiased and unbroken,
In manly deed and bold word spoken.
His songs the nation's sins chastise,
He hates a lie, as truth's high teacher
(No Sunday-, but a weekday-preacher,
Who, suffering, still the wrong defies).
Against false peace he plies his lance,
'Gainst cowardice and ignorance,-
No bribe he knows
From nation's hand
Nor king's command;
But
his
way goes.
And when he wavers, sorrow scourges
His heart and free of passion purges.
He is a brother of the small,
Of women, as of all who suffer,
The new and weak, when waves grow rougher,
He steers, till fairer breezes fall.
Greater he grows without his will
By deeds his calling to fulfil,
And near the tomb
To God he sighs,
That soon may rise
A richer bloom
To deck his people's soul with flowers
Of beauty far beyond his powers.
Scheme | ABBACCADXDEE FGGFHHIJIJKXXK LXMLNNOXOXKK DGGDXXPQQXMPMM RGGRXESDDSTT |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101011 011111110 11010011 1111011 01110111 1101011 0101 0111 1101 1100 101101010 010111010 11010111 110110 111111110 11111111 11110101 11110011 0111 0111 0111 0101 110101010 0 1 111010 01010111 010101010 111111100 1111101 11011100 01110100 011 1101 0111 11111 01100010 010101110 11010101 110111110 1110110 110010101 01111111 11000100 1111 1101 1101 1 1 11 01111010 110111010 11010101 110111110 010111110 11110101 10110111 1111011 0101 1111 1111 0101 111101110 110101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,744 |
Words | 323 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 14, 12, 14, 12 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 280 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:41 min read
- 102 Views
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"The poet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4421/the-poet>.
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