Analysis of Of Dimitrios Sotir
Constantine P. Cavafy 1863 (Alexandria) – 1933 (Alexandria)
Everything he'd hoped for turned out wrong.
He'd seen himself doing great things,
ending the humiliation that had kept his country down
ever since the battle of Magnesia
seen himself making Syria a powerful state again,
with her armies, her fleets,
her big fortresses, her wealth.
He'd suffered in Rome, become bitter
when he sensed in the talk of friends,
young men of the great families,
that in spite of all their delicacy, their politeness
toward him, the son
of King Selefkos Philopator-
when he sensed that in spite of this there was always
a secret contempt for the Hellenized dynasties:
their heyday was over, they weren't fit for anything serious,
were completely unable to rule their peoples.
He'd cut himself off, indignant, swearing
it would be quite different from the way they thought.
Why, wasn't he himself full of determination?
He would act, he would fight, he would put it all right again.
If he could only find a way of getting to the East,
only manage to escape from Italy,
then all this inner strength,
all this energy,
he'd pass on to his people.
Only to be in Syria!
He was so young when he left his country
he hardly remembered what it looked like.
But in his mind he'd always thought of it
as something sacred that you approach reverently,
as a beautiful place unveiled, a vision
of Greek cities and Greek ports.
And now?
Now despair and sorrow.
They were right, the young men in Rome.
The dynasties resulting from the Macedonian Conquest
can't be kept going any longer.
It doesn't matter. He'd made the effort,
fought as much as he could.
And in his bleak disillusion
there's only one thing in which he still takes pride:
that even in failure
he shows the world his same indomitable courage.
The rest: they were dreams and wasted energy.
This Syria -it almost seems it isn't his country
this Syria is the land of Valas and Herakleidis.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJKLHMJKNOPLEQRSRTDRUVRLWXYZ1 H2 3 L4 H5 RRB |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111111 11011011 10000101111101 1010101010 101101000100101 101001 0110001 110010110 11100111 11101100 10111110001010 01101 1111 11110111111 010011010100 111101101110100 001001011110 1101101010 111110010111 110101110010 11111111111101 11110101110101 10101011100 111101 11100 1111110 10110100 1111111110 1100101111 101111111 1101011011000 10100101010 1110011 01 101010 10101101 01000101001010 111101010 1101011010 111111 0011010 11011011111 110010 1101110100010 01101010100 1100111110110 11001011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,824 |
Words | 331 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 47 |
Lines Amount | 47 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,472 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 329 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 99 Views
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