Analysis of The riders of the plains
Emily Pauline Johnson 1861 – 1913
Who is it lacks the knowledge? Who are the curs that dare
To whine and sneer that they do not fear the whelps in the Lion's lair?
But we of the North will answer, while life in the North remains,
Let the curs beware lest the whelps they dare are the Riders of the Plains;
For these are the kind whose muscle makes the power of the Lion's jaw,
And they keep the peace of our people and the honour of British law.
A woman has painted a picture,--'tis a neat little bit of art
The critics aver, and it roused up for her the love of the big British heart.
'Tis a sketch of an English bulldog that tigers would scarce attack,
And round and about and beneath him is painted the Union Jack.
With its blaze of colour, and courage, its daring in every fold,
And underneath is the title, "What we have we'll hold."
'Tis a picture plain as a mirror, but the reflex it contains
Is the counterpart of the life and heart of the Riders of the Plains;
For like to that flag and that motto, and the power of that bulldog's jaw,
They keep the peace of our people and the honour of British law.
These are the fearless fighters, whose life in the open lies,
Who never fail on the prairie trail 'neath the Territorial skies,
Who have laughed in the face of the bullets and the edge of the rebels' steel,
Who have set their ban on the lawless man with his crime beneath their heel;
These are the men who battle the blizzards, the suns, the rains,
These are the famed that the North has named the "Riders of the Plains,"
And theirs is the might and the meaning and the strength of the bulldog's jaw,
While they keep the peace of the people and the honour of British law.
These are the men of action, who need not the world's renown,
For their valour is known to England's throne as a gem in the British crown;
These are the men who face the front, whose courage the world may scan,
The men who are feared by the felon, but are loved by the honest man;
These are the marrow, the pith, the cream, the best that the blood contains,
Who have cast their days in the valiant ways of the Riders of the Plains;
And theirs is the kind whose muscle makes the power of old England's jaw,
And they keep the peace of her people and the honour of British law.
Then down with the cur that questions,--let him slink to his craven den,--
For he daren't deny our hot reply as to "who are our mounted men."
He shall honour them east and westward, he shall honour them south and north,
He shall bare his head to that coat of red wherever that red rides forth.
'Tis well that he knows the fibre that the great North-West contains,
The North-West pride in her men that ride on the Territorial plains,--
For of such as these are the muscles and the teeth in the Lion's jaw,
And they keep the peace of our people and the honour of British law.
Scheme | aabbcC ddeeffbbcc gghhbbcc iijjbbcc kkllbbcC |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010110111 1101111110100101 111011101100101 10101101111010101 11101110101010101 01101110100011101 01011001010110111 0101001111001101101 101111011101101 0100100111100101 1111101011001001 001101011111 1010110101010101 1010101011010101 11111011000101111 1101110100011101 11010101100101 1101101011001001 111001101000110101 11111101011110111 11011100100101 110110111010101 0110100100011011 1110110100011101 11011101110101 11111110110100101 110111011100111 01111101011110101 1101001010110101 11111001011010101 01101110101011101 0110110100011101 1110111011111101 111010110101111110101 111110101111101 11111111110101111 111110101011101 0111001111001001 11111101000100101 01101110100011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 2,804 |
Words | 550 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 10, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 54 |
Words per line (avg) | 14 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 433 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 108 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 2:47 min read
- 158 Views
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"The riders of the plains" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12635/the-riders-of-the-plains>.
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