Analysis of The Flight of Peace

Charles Harpur 1813 (Windsor) – 1868 (Australia)



TRUST and Treachery, Wisdom, Folly,
Madness, Mirth and Melancholy,
Love and Hatred, Thrift and Pillage,
All are housed in one small village.

And if such be Life’s mix’d being,
Where may Peace from ruin fleeing,
Find a shelter and inherit
All the calm of her own merit?

In a bark of gentle motion
Sailing on the summer ocean?
There worst war the tempest wages
And the whirlpool’s hunger rages.

In some lonely new-world bower,
Hidden like a forest flower?
There too, there, to irk the stranger,
Stalks the wild-eyed spirit Danger!

Vainly would she build by roving
Or in hoping or in loving,
Or in solitary spaces,
Having in all times and places,
Or in none a home of beauty
In the fearless heart of Duty,
Dwelling there and seeing
God’s right hand all things decreeing.


Scheme AAXX BBCC DDEX FFFF BBEEAABB
Poetic Form
Metre 101001010 1010100 10101010 11101110 01111110 11111010 10100010 10110110 00111010 10101010 11101010 0011010 01101110 10101010 11111010 10111010 10111110 10101010 1010010 10011010 10101110 00101110 101010 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 760
Words 138
Sentences 8
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 120
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

41 sec read
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Charles Harpur

Charles Harpur was an Australian poet. more…

All Charles Harpur poems | Charles Harpur Books

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