Analysis of Lament of the Frontier Guard
Ezra Pound 1885 (Hailey) – 1972 (Venice)
By the North Gate, the wind blows full of sand,
Lonely from the beginning of time until now!
Trees fall, the grass goes yellow with autumn.
I climb the towers and towers
to watch out the barbarous land:
Desolate castle, the sky, the wide desert.
There is no wall left to this village.
Bones white with a thousand frosts,
High heaps, covered with trees and grass;
Who brought this to pass?
Who has brought the flaming imperial anger?
Who has brought the army with drums and with kettle-drums?
Barbarous kings.
A gracious spring, turned to blood-ravenous autumn,
A turmoil of wars - men, spread over the middle kingdom,
Three hundred and sixty thousand,
And sorrow, sorrow like rain.
Sorrow to go, and sorrow, sorrow returning,
Desolate, desolate fields,
And no children of warfare upon them,
No longer the men for offence and defence.
Ah, how shall you know the dreary sorrow at the North Gate,
With Rihoku's name forgotten,
And we guardsmen fed to the tigers.
By Rihaku. [Li Po?]
Scheme | AXBCAXXXDDXXXBBXXXXXXXXC X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011011111 101001011011 1101110110 11010010 11101001 10010010110 111111110 1110101 11101101 11111 111010010010 1110101101101 1001 010111110010 0111111001010 11001010 0101011 101101010010 1001001 011011011 1100111001 11111010101011 111010 011011010 1111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 964 |
Words | 173 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 24, 1 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 385 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 85 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 268 Views
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