Analysis of Our State
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
THE South-land boasts its teeming cane,
The prairied West its heavy grain,
And sunset's radiant gates unfold
On rising marts and sands of gold!
Rough, bleak, and hard, our little State
Is scant of soil, of limits strait;
Her yellow sands are sands alone,
Her only mines are ice and stone!
From Autumn frost to April rain,
Too long her winter woods complain;
Fom budding flower to falling leaf,
Her summer time is all too brief.
Yet, on her rocks, and on her sands,
And wintry hills, the school-house stands,
And what her rugged soil denies,
The harvest of the mind supplies.
The riches of the Commonwealth
Are free, strong minds, and hearts of health;
And more to her than gold or grain,
The cunning hand and cultured brain.
For well she keeps her ancient stock,
The stubborn strength of Pilgrim Rock;
And still maintains, with milder laws,
And clearer light, the Good Old Cause!
Nor heeds the skeptic's puny hands,
While near her school the church-spire stands;
Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule,
While near her church-spire stands the school.
Scheme | AABBCCDDAAEEFFGGHHAAIIJKFFLL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01111101 0111101 01100101 11010111 110110101 11111101 01011101 01011101 11011101 11010101 110101101 01011111 11010101 01010111 01010101 01010101 0101010 11110111 01101111 01010101 11110101 01011101 01011101 01010111 1101101 11010111 1101011 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,026 |
Words | 183 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 822 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 181 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 56 Views
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"Our State" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23007/our-state>.
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