Analysis of The Invincible Armada
Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)
She comes, she comes--the burden of the deeps!
Beneath her wails the universal sea!
With clanking chains and a new god, she sweeps,
And with a thousand thunders, unto thee!
The ocean-castles and the floating hosts--
Ne'er on their like looked the wild water!--Well
May man the monster name "Invincible."
O'er shuddering waves she gathers to thy coasts!
The horror that she spreads can claim
Just title to her haughty name.
The trembling Neptune quails
Under the silent and majestic forms;
The doom of worlds in those dark sails;--
Near and more near they sweep! and slumber all the storms!
Before thee, the array,
Blest island, empress of the sea!
The sea-born squadrons threaten thee,
And thy great heart, Britannia!
Woe to thy people, of their freedom proud--
She rests, a thunder heavy in its cloud!
Who, to thy hand the orb and sceptre gave,
That thou should'st be the sovereign of the nations?
To tyrant kings thou wert thyself the slave,
Till freedom dug from law its deep foundations;
The mighty Chart the citizens made kings,
And kings to citizens sublimely bowed!
And thou thyself, upon thy realm of water,
Hast thou not rendered millions up to slaughter,
When thy ships brought upon their sailing wings
The sceptre--and the shroud?
What should'st thou thank?--Blush, earth, to hear and feel
What should'st thou thank?--Thy genius and thy steel!
Behold the hidden and the giant fires!
Behold thy glory trembling to its fall!
Thy coming doom the round earth shall appal,
And all the hearts of freemen beat for thee,
And all free souls their fate in thine foresee--
Theirs is thy glory's fall!
One look below the Almighty gave,
Where streamed the lion-flags of thy proud foe;
And near and wider yawned the horrent grave.
"And who," saith He, "shall lay mine England low--
The stem that blooms with hero-deeds--
The rock when man from wrong a refuge needs--
The stronghold where the tyrant comes in vain?
Who shall bid England vanish from the main?
Ne'er be this only Eden freedom knew,
Man's stout defence from power, to fate consigned."
God the Almighty blew,
And the Armada went to every wind!
Scheme | AAABACXADDAAAA XABXEEFAFAAEGGAEHHAICBAI FJFJAAKKLMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (26%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111010101 010100101 1101001111 0101010101 0101000101 1111101101 1101010100 101001110111 01011111 11010101 0100101 1001000101 01110111 101111010101 011001 11010101 01110101 01110100 1111011101 1101010011 1111010101 111110101010 110111101 11011111010 0101010011 01110011 0110111110 11110101110 1111011101 010001 11111111101 11111110011 01010001010 01110100111 110101111 0101110111 0111110101 11111 110100101 1101011111 010101011 0111111101 01111101 0111110101 011010101 1111010101 1111010101 11011101101 100101 00010111001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,090 |
Words | 370 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 24, 12 |
Lines Amount | 50 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 547 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 120 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:52 min read
- 54 Views
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"The Invincible Armada" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14402/the-invincible-armada>.
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