Analysis of Pioneers! O Pioneers!
COME, my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes?
Pioneers! O pioneers!
For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
O you youths, western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, 10
Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the
seas?
We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the past we leave behind;
We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world,
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,
Pioneers! O pioneers! 20
We detachments steady throwing,
Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
We primeval forests felling,
We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines
within;
We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
Colorado men are we,
From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high
plateaus, 30
From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
From Nebraska, from Arkansas,
Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood
intervein'd;
All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the
Northern,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
O resistless, restless race!
O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
O I mourn and yet exult--I am rapt with love for all,
Pioneers! O pioneers! 40
Raise the mighty mother mistress,
Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress,
(bend your heads all,)
Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd
mistress,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
See, my children, resolute children,
By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter,
Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us urging,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
On and on, the compact ranks,
With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly
fill'd, 50
Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
O to die advancing on!
Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come?
Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill'd,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the pulses of the world,
Falling in, they beat for us, with the western movement beat;
Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front, all for us,
Pioneers! O pioneers! 60
Life's involv'd and varied pageants,
All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,
All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the hapless silent lovers,
All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,
All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
I too with my soul and body,
We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, 70
Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the apparitions
pressing,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
Lo! the darting bowling orb!
Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets,
All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
These are of us, they are with us,
All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait
Scheme | abcD xexD xxxD fgxaD xhxd ixxD ixxiD bxcjD xfbgxD xkkd llkblD aeiD xbmiD xjmD hxld xxxD xfiD bxxiD xxxD lx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110 101010111010 111101111110 01101 1110101 11111011101110 1010100101011101 01101 111101 1010111011101010 11111011110101 01101 10101010 1110111010101010 1 1110101000100010 01101 1011101 11010101001101 10101111110001 01101 111010 1010101010101 10010101001110011 01101 10101010 101010101010101 01 10101010101011 01101 010111 101010101010001 1 101010101010111 01101 1010110 1011111010100101 1 101111101010 10 01101 11101 1011011111110111 11101011111111 01101 10101010 10101001010101010 1111 101011010101 10 01101 11101010 1110110111101110 1010101010101110 01101 1010101 111010101010110 1 101010110101010 01101 1110101 11111110110101 1010111011010111 01101 1010101 10011111010101 101010101010101111 01101 10101010 101011010111 10100011010111 01101 10101010 10100001010100010 101010110101010 01101 11111010 101001101001101 111010110010 10 01101 1010101 1010101101001010 1010011010111 01101 11111111 11101011010010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,244 |
Words | 612 |
Sentences | 53 |
Stanzas | 20 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 4, 6, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 2 |
Lines Amount | 87 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 140 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 3:05 min read
- 288 Views
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"Pioneers! O Pioneers!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38112/pioneers%21-o-pioneers%21>.
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