Analysis of Lexington
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
No Berserk thirst of blood had they,
No battle-joy was theirs, who set
Against the alien bayonet
Their homespun breasts in that old day.
Their feet had trodden peaceful, ways;
They loved not strife, they dreaded pain;
They saw not, what to us is plain,
That God would make man's wrath his praise.
No seers were they, but simple men;
Its vast results the future hid
The meaning of the work they did
Was strange and dark and doubtful then.
Swift as their summons came they left
The plough mid-furrow standing still,
The half-ground corn grist in the mill,
The spade in earth, the axe in cleft.
They went where duty seemed to call,
They scarcely asked the reason why;
They only knew they could but die,
And death was not the worst of all!
Of man for man the sacrifice,
All that was theirs to give, they gave.
The flowers that blossomed from their grave
Have sown themselves beneath all skies.
Their death-shot shook the feudal tower,
And shattered slavery's chain as well;
On the sky's dome, as on a bell,
Its echo struck the world's great hour.
That fateful echo is not dumb
The nations listening to its sound
Wait, from a century's vantage-ground,
The holier triumphs yet to come,--
The bridal time of Law and Love,
The gladness of the world's release,
When, war-sick, at the feet of Peace
The hawk shall nestle with the dove!--
The golden age of brotherhood
Unknown to other rivalries
Than of the mild humanities,
And gracious interchange of good,
When closer strand shall lean to strand,
Till meet, beneath saluting flags,
The eagle of our mountain-crags,
The lion of our Motherland!
Scheme | ABBA CDDC EFFE GHHG IJJI XKKX LMML NOON PQQP RSSR TXCT |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (91%) |
Metre | 10111111 11011111 01010010 1110111 11110101 11111101 11111111 11111111 11011101 11010101 01010111 11010101 11110111 01110101 01111001 01010101 11110111 11010101 11011111 01110111 1111010 11111111 010110111 11010111 111101010 0101111 10111101 110101110 11010111 010100111 110100101 010010111 01011101 0110101 11110111 01110101 0101110 01110100 11010100 0100111 11011111 11010101 010110101 01011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,554 |
Words | 285 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 113 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 84 Views
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"Lexington" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22960/lexington>.
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