Analysis of The King's Pilgrimage
Our King went forth on pilgrimage
His prayers and vows to pay
To them that saved our heritage
And cast their own away.
And there was little show of pride,
Or prows of belted steel,
For the clean-swept oceans every side
Lay free to every keel.
And the first land he found, it was shoal and banky ground -
Where the broader seas begin,
And a pale tide grieving at the broken harbour-mouth
Where they worked the death-ships in.
And there was neither gull on the wing,
Nor wave that could not tell
Of the bodies that were buckled in the life-buoy's ring
That slid from swell to swell.
All that they had they gave - they gave; and they shall not return,
For these are those that have no grave where any heart may mourn.
And the next land he found, it was low and hollow ground -
Where once the cities stood,
But the man-high thistle had been master of it all,
Or the bulrush by the flood.
And there was neither blade of grass,
Nor lone star in the sky
But shook to see some spirit pass
And took its agony.
And the next land be found, it was bare and hilly round -
Where once the bread-corn grew,
But the fields were cankered and the water was defiled,
And the trees were riven through.
And there was neither paved highway,
Nor secret path in the wood,
But had borne its weight of the broken clay
And darkened 'neath the blood.
Father and mother they put aside, and the nearer love also -
An hundred thousand men who died whose graves shall no man
know.
And the last land he found, it was fair and level ground
About a carven stone,
And a stark Sword brooding on the bosom of the Cross
Where high and low are one.
And there was grass and the living trees,
And the flowers of the spring,
And there lay gentlemen from out of all the seas
That ever called him King.
'Twixt Nieuport sands and the eastward lands where the Four Red Rivers spring,
Five hundred thousand gentlemen of those that served their King.
All that they had they gave - they gave -
In sure and single faith.
There can no knowledge reach the grave
To make them grudge their death
Save only if they understood
That, after all was done,
We they redeemed denied their blood
And mocked the gains it won.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFXF GHGH XX EIXJ KXKX ELCL BIBJ MXM EXXN OGOG GG PXPXINJN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101111100 110111 111110100 011101 01110111 111101 1011101001 1111001 001111111011 1010101 0011101010101 1110110 011101101 111111 1010101000111 111111 11111111011101 11111111110111 0011111110101 110101 1011101110111 1010101 01110111 111001 11111101 011100 0011111110101 110111 10101001011 0010101 0111011 1101001 1111110101 010101 1001011010010110 1101011111111 1 0011111110101 01011 0011101010101 110111 011100101 0010101 011100111101 110111 111001011011101 11010100111111 11111111 010101 11110101 111111 1101101 110111 11010111 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,113 |
Words | 415 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 2, 8 |
Lines Amount | 55 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 2:04 min read
- 187 Views
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"The King's Pilgrimage" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/33466/the-king%27s-pilgrimage>.
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