Analysis of Percival Sharp
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
Observe the clasped hands!
Are they hands of farewell or greeting,
Hands that I helped or hands that helped me?
Would it not be well to carve a hand
With an inverted thumb, like Elagabalus?
And yonder is a broken chain,
The weakest-link idea perhaps --
But what was it?
And lambs, some lying down,
Others standing, as if listening to the shepherd --
Others bearing a cross, one foot lifted up --
Why not chisel a few shambles?
And fallen columns! Carve the pedestal, please,
Or the foundations; let us see the cause of the fall.
And compasses and mathematical instruments,
In irony of the under tenants' ignorance
Of determinants and the calculus of variations.
And anchors, for those who never sailed.
And gates ajar -- yes, so they were;
You left them open and stray goats entered your garden.
And an eye watching like one of the Arimaspi --
So did you -- with one eye.
And angels blowing trumpets -- you are heralded --
It is your horn and your angel and your family's estimate.
It is all very well, but for myself I know
I stirred certain vibrations in Spoon River
Which are my true epitaph, more lasting than stone.
Scheme | ABCDAEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSJTUVWRX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011 11111110 111111111 111111101 11010111 01010101 010101001 1111 011101 1010111001010 10100111101 11100110 01010101001 1001011101101 0100100100 0100101010100 10100001001010 010111101 01011110 1111001110110 0111011101 111111 010101011100 1111011001100100 11110111111 11100100110 11111011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,102 |
Words | 206 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 27 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 869 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 204 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 51 Views
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