Analysis of France, The 18th Year Of These States
A GREAT year and place;
A harsh, discordant, natal scream out-sounding, to touch the mother's
heart closer than any yet.
I walk'd the shores of my Eastern Sea,
Heard over the waves the little voice,
Saw the divine infant, where she woke, mournfully wailing, amid the
roar of cannon, curses, shouts, crash of falling buildings;
Was not so sick from the blood in the gutters running--nor from the
single corpses, nor those in heaps, nor those borne away in the
tumbrils;
Was not so desperate at the battues of death--was not so shock'd at
the repeated fusillades of the guns.
Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that long-accrued
retribution?
Could I wish humanity different?
Could I wish the people made of wood and stone? 10
Or that there be no justice in destiny or time?
O Liberty! O mate for me!
Here too the blaze, the grape-shot and the axe, in reserve, to fetch
them out in case of need;
Here too, though long represt, can never be destroy'd;
Here too could rise at last, murdering and extatic;
Here too demanding full arrears of vengeance.
Hence I sign this salute over the sea,
And I do not deny that terrible red birth and baptism,
But remember the little voice that I heard wailing--and wait with
perfect trust, no matter how long;
And from to-day, sad and cogent, I maintain the bequeath'd cause, as
for all lands, 20
And I send these words to Paris with my love,
And I guess some chansonniers there will understand them,
For I guess there is latent music yet in France--floods of it;
O I hear already the bustle of instruments--they will soon be
drowning all that would interrupt them;
O I think the east wind brings a triumphal and free march,
It reaches hither--it swells me to joyful madness,
I will run transpose it in words, to justify it,
I will yet sing a song for you, MA FEMME.
Scheme | AXX BXCXCCAXX XXXXX BXXXDX BXXDXXXEFBEXXFE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01101 0101010111011010 1101101 110111101 110010101 100110111110010 1110101111010 1111101001010110 101011011110100 1 111101011111111 00101101 1101111111101 010 1110100100 11101011101 1111110010011 11001111 110101100100111 110111 11111110101 11111110001 11010101110 1111011001 0111011100110100 1010010111110011 01111011 0111101010100111 111 01111110111 0111111011 111111010101111 11101001011001111 10111011 11101110010011 1101011111010 111011011101 1111011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,013 |
Words | 329 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 9, 5, 6, 15 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 280 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 78 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 63 Views
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"France, The 18th Year Of These States" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38011/france%2C-the-18th-year-of-these-states>.
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