Analysis of The Rock-Tomb Of Bradore
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
A DREAR and desolate shore!
Where no tree unfolds its leaves,
And never the spring wind weaves
Green grass for the hunter's tread;
A land forsaken and dead,
Where the ghostly icebergs go
And come with the ebb and flow
Of the waters of Bradore!
A wanderer, from a land
By summer breezes fanned,
Looked round him, awed, subdued,
By the dreadful solitude,
Hearing alone the cry
Of sea-birds clanging by,
The crash and grind of the floe,
Wail of wind and wash of tide.
'O wretched land!' he cried,
'Land of all lands the worst,
God forsaken and curst!
Thy gates of rock should show
The words the Tuscan seer
Read in the Realm of Woe
Hope entereth not here!'
Lo! at his feet there stood
A block of smooth larch wood,
Waif of some wandering wave,
Beside a rock-closed cave
By Nature fashioned for a grave;
Safe from the ravening bear
And fierce fowl of the air,
Wherein to rest was laid
A twenty summers' maid,
Whose blood had equal share
Of the lands of vine and snow,
Half French, half Eskimo.
In letters uneffaced,
Upon the block were traced
The grief and hope of man,
And thus the legend ran
'We loved her!
Words cannot tell how well!
We loved her!
God loved her!
And called her home to peace and rest.
We love her.'
The stranger paused and read.
'O winter land!' he said,
'Thy right to be I own;
God leaves thee not alone.
And if thy fierce winds blow
Over drear wastes of rock and snow,
And at thy iron gates
The ghostly iceberg waits,
Thy homes and hearts are dear.
Thy sorrow o'er thy sacred dust
Is sanctified by hope and trust;
God's love and man's are here.
And love where'er it goes
Makes its own atmosphere;
Its flowers of Paradise
Take root in the eternal ice,
And bloom through Polar snows!'
Scheme | abbccdda eeffggdhhxcdidi jjkkkllmmlddcxnnOxOoxo ccppddqqrssitruut |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101001 1110111 0100111 1110101 0101001 1010101 0110101 101011 0100101 110101 111101 101010 100101 111101 0101101 1110111 110111 111101 101001 111111 010101 100111 1111 111111 011111 1111001 010111 11010101 11011 011101 011111 010101 111101 1011101 11110 0101 010101 010111 010101 110 110111 110 110 01011101 110 010101 110111 111111 111101 011111 10111101 011101 010101 110111 110101101 111101 110111 011011 11110 110110 11000101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,647 |
Words | 326 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 15, 22, 17 |
Lines Amount | 62 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 329 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 80 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 36 Views
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"The Rock-Tomb Of Bradore" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23191/the-rock-tomb-of-bradore>.
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