Analysis of Liberty!
'LIBERTY?' Is that the cry, then?
We have heard it oft of yore.
Once it had, we think, a meaning;
Let us hear it now no more.
We have read what history tells us
Of its heroes, martyrs too.
Doubtless they were very splendid,
But they're not for me and you.
There were Greeks who fought and perished,
Won from Persians deathless graves.
Had we lived then, we're aware that
We'd have been those same Greeks' slaves!
Then a Roman came who loved us;
Caesar gave men tongues and swords.
Crying 'Liberty,' they fought him,
Cato and his wild-beast lords.
When he'd give a broader franchise,
Lift the mangled nations bowed,
Crying 'Liberty!' they killed him,
Brutus and his cut-throat crowd.
We have read what history tells us,
O the truthful memory clings!
Tacitus, the chartered liar,
Gloating over poisoned kings!
'Liberty!' The stale cry echoes
Past smug homesteads, tinsel thrones,
Over smoking fields and hovels,
Murdered peasants' bleaching bones.
That's the cry that mocked us madly,
Toiling in our living graves,
When hell-mines sent up the chorus;
'Britons never shall be slaves!'
'Liberty!' We care not for it!
What we care for's food, clothes, homes,
For our dear ones, toiling, waiting
For the time that never comes!
Scheme | abcbDefeghihdjkjlmkmDnonpdqrshdhtucv |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10011011 1111111 11111010 1111111 111110011 1110101 10101010 1111101 10111010 111011 11111011 1111111 10101111 1011101 10100111 1001111 1110101 1010101 10100111 1001111 111110011 10101001 101010 1010101 10001110 111101 10101010 1010101 10111110 10010101 11111010 1010111 10011111 1111111 110111010 1011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,193 |
Words | 216 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 36 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 942 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 208 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 59 Views
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"Liberty!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14033/liberty%21>.
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