Analysis of Ode To The Philistines
George Essex Evans 1863 (London) – 1909 (Toowoomba)
In an age of Mammon and Greed,
In an age of Humbug and Cant,
Where Speech is greater than Deed
In the reign of the sycophant,
Let us turn from the shameless lips that babble of things Divine,
And shout to the God we know not the Song of the Philistine!
All hail, as you gather and pass
From the mansion and counting-house,
Men with a front of brass;
Men with the soul of a mouse;
Men with the mark of the beast scored as deep on your brows unclean
As erst on the brows that quailed ’neath the scourge of the Nazarene.
Six days shalt thou swindle and lie!
On the seventh—tho’ it soundeth odd—
In the odour of sanctity
Thou shalt offer the Lord, thy God,
A threepenny bit, a doze, a start, and an unctuous smile,
And a hurried prayer to prosper another six days of guile.
You have judged by the rich man’s rule!
You have treated your thinkers as dust!
You have honoured the braggart and fool
Whilst Genius has starved on a crust!
For all that you ask to fit what you call “a man” for a place
Is a shallow heart, a noisy tongue, thick hide, and a brazen face.
You have sold your daughters for gold!
You have sold your honour for naught!
And your creed is easily told—
“All things can be offered and bought!”
And you thank the good Lord God in your pews, on your bended knees,
That you live in a cultured age—and do cultured things like these!
In an age too enlightened and good
To call any wrong by its name,
Millions are crying for food,
Millions are living in shame,
Millions of human hearts, as God knows if he sees and feels,
Lie bound by the System’s chains ’neath the crunch of the System’s wheels!
You are slaves to custom and vogue!
You are timid to speak or to move!
You have worshipped the monied rogue!
You are walled in your narrow groove!
And the men with the noblest hearts, who have aimed at the Highest Good,
You have trampled them under your feet—unheard and misunderstood!
For the spirit of old remains
That nailed the Christ to the tree;
That brought Galileo to chains
And Bruno to tragedy.
For the Philistine altereth not—unchanged since the world began
He has hindered the march of progress and murdered the thinking man.
Take heed in your sordid pride!
Take heed in your purse-born ease!
For far o’er the world and wide
Grows something greater than these,
And the throb of the vexed world’s heart no system shall cramp in thrall,
Till the joy and sorrow of each be the joy and sorrow of all.
Lo, whoever shall stand and fight
With the tongue, or the brain, or the pen,
For a larger measure of Right
For the mass of his fellow men,
He is nearer the unknown God than the chiefs of a priestly line,
His life is a deeper prayer than the cant of the Philistine.
Scheme | AXAABCDEDECB XFGFHH IJIJKK LXLXMM NOXOPP QRQRNN SGSGTT UMUMVV WXWXBC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 0111101 0111101 1111011 001101 111101011101101 01101111011010 11111001 10100101 110111 1101101 110110111111101 1110111101101 11111001 10101111 0011100 11100111 011010101101 001011100101111 11110111 111011011 1110101 11011101 111111111101101 1010101011100101 11111011 1111111 01111001 11111001 011011101111101 111001010110111 011101001 11101111 1011011 1011001 10110111111101 111010110110101 11111001 111011111 11100101 11101101 0011010111110101 111011011010001 10101101 1101101 1101011 0101100 1010110110101 111001110100101 1101101 1101111 1110101 1101011 001101111101101 1010101110101011 10101101 101101101 10101011 10111101 1110001110110101 11101011011010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,669 |
Words | 511 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 232 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:33 min read
- 75 Views
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"Ode To The Philistines" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/14969/ode-to-the-philistines>.
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