Analysis of To Horror
Robert Southey 1774 (Bristol) – 1843 (London)
Dark HORROR, hear my call!
Stern Genius hear from thy retreat
On some old sepulchre's moss-cankered seat,
Beneath the Abbey's ivied wall
That trembles o'er its shade;
Where wrapt in midnight gloom, alone,
Thou lovest to lie and hear
The roar of waters near,
And listen to the deep dull groan
Of some perturbed sprite
Borne fitful on the heavy gales of night.
Or whether o'er some wide waste hill
Thou mark'st the traveller stray,
Bewilder'd on his lonely way,
When, loud and keen and chill,
The evening winds of winter blow
Drifting deep the dismal snow.
Or if thou followest now on Greenland's shore,
With all thy terrors, on the lonely way
Of some wrecked mariner, when to the roar
Of herded bears the floating ice-hills round
Pour their deep echoing sound,
And by the dim drear Boreal light
Givest half his dangers to the wretches sight.
Or if thy fury form,
When o'er the midnight deep
The dark-wing'd tempests sweep
Watches from some high cliff the encreasing storm,
Listening with strange delight
As the black billows to the thunder rave
When by the lightnings light
Thou seest the tall ship sink beneath the wave.
Dark HORROR! bear me where the field of fight
Scatters contagion on the tainted gale,
When to the Moon's faint beam,
On many a carcase shine the dews of night
And a dead silence stills the vale
Save when at times is heard the glutted Raven's scream.
Where some wreck'd army from the Conquerors might
Speed their disastrous flight,
With thee fierce Genius! let me trace their way,
And hear at times the deep heart-groan
Of some poor sufferer left to die alone,
His sore wounds smarting with the winds of night;
And we will pause, where, on the wild,
The Mother to her frozen breast,
On the heap'd snows reclining clasps her child
And with him sleeps, chill'd to eternal rest!
Black HORROR! speed we to the bed of Death,
Where he whose murderous power afar
Blasts with the myriad plagues of war,
Struggles with his last breath,
Then to his wildly-starting eyes
The phantoms of the murder'd rise,
Then on his frenzied ear
Their groans for vengeance and the Demon's yell
In one heart-maddening chorus swell.
Cold on his brow convulsing stands the dew,
And night eternal darkens on his view.
HORROR! I call thee yet once more!
Bear me to that accursed shore
Where round the stake the impaled Negro writhes.
Assume thy sacred terrors then! dispense
The blasting gales of Pestilence!
Arouse the race of Afric! holy Power,
Lead them to vengeance! and in that dread hour
When Ruin rages wide
I will behold and smile by MERCY'S side.
Scheme | ABBAXCDXCEE FGGFHH IGIJJEE KLLKEMEM ENOENO EEGCCEPQPQ RXIRSSDTTUU IISXXVVWW |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111 11011101 1111111 0101011 111011 1101101 111101 011101 01010111 11011 1101010111 110101111 11101001 01011101 110101 01011101 1010101 11111111 1111010101 1111001101 1101010111 1111001 0101111 111101011 111101 110011 01111 101111011 1001101 1011010101 110101 1101110101 1101110111 101010101 110111 1100110111 00110101 11111101011 11110101001 110101 1111011111 01110111 11110011101 1111010111 01111101 01010101 1011010101 0111110101 1101110111 1111001001 110100111 101111 11110101 01010101 111101 111100011 011100101 11111101 010101111 10111111 111111 1101001101 0111010101 01011100 0101111010 11110001110 110101 110101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,533 |
Words | 451 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 6, 7, 8, 6, 10, 11, 9 |
Lines Amount | 68 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 253 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:20 min read
- 102 Views
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"To Horror" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31912/to-horror>.
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