Analysis of If They Dare!
Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)
Realm of ocean-guarded Peace,
Humming loom and grazing steer,
Farm, and forge, and woven fleece,
Happier, homelier, year by year,
Hark! athwart the wintry air,
Menace mutters, foemen glare:
Leave the shuttle, leave the share,
For the spear!
Envious of her world-wide race,
Goaded by the greed and hate
Of the hungry and the base
For the opulent and great,
``See,'' they whisper, ``did we band
All against Her, hand-in-hand,
We might bring that haughty Land
Face with Fate.''
Plotters insolent and vain,
Muster then your servile swarms.
Moated by the unbridged main,
We but laugh at such alarms.
Blinded braggarts, to forget
England old is England yet,
And can meet, as once She met,
World in arms.
Come athwart the ocean's crest,
Mob and Monarch, crowd and Crown!
Slavish East, or shrilling West,
Come, and strike at her renown.
Madmen! by your threats inane
What is it ye hope to gain?
Think of France, think of Spain,
Smitten down!
Derelict on wind and wave,
Tossing with the tossing tide,
Crushed by ice-floe, tombed in cave,
See the Armada's pomp and pride:
Prince and Pontiff, Rome and Spain,
Leagued against Her, leagued in vain;
England and her mother-main
Side by side.
Think of that self-sceptered King,
Caesar not by birth but brain,
Who with arbitrary wing
Hovered over hill and plain:
Headlong from that haughty height
Forced to sue to England's might,
And accept, for eagle's flight,
Cage and chain!
Still they cry, ``She is alone,
And must truckle to our nod.''
What! with half the world her own!
What! still wielding Neptune's rod!
She is lonely as the breeze,
Lonely as the stars or seas,
Lone, unreachable as these,
Lone as God!
Let the bandits then deride
Loneliness they shall not share.
We are lonely, unallied,
As the lion in his lair.
Doubters, dastards, now be dumb:
Sound the clarion! Roll the drum!
Let them menace, let them come,
If they dare!
Scheme | ABABCCCB DEDEFFFE GXGHIIIH JKJKGGGK LMLMGGGM NGNGOOOG PQPQRRRQ MCECSSSC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 1010101 1010101 1001111 1010101 101011 1010101 101 10010111 1010101 1010001 1010001 1110111 1010101 1111101 111 1010001 1011101 11011 1111101 101101 1011101 0111111 101 1010101 101101 101111 1011001 1011101 1111111 111111 101 101101 1010101 1111101 101101 1010101 1010101 1000101 111 111111 1011111 111001 1010101 111101 1111101 0011101 101 1111101 0111101 1110101 111011 1110101 1010111 1010011 111 1010101 1001111 11101 1010011 101111 10100101 1110111 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,814 |
Words | 328 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 181 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:39 min read
- 90 Views
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"If They Dare!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/737/if-they-dare%21>.
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