Analysis of Ireland
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
Fire in her ashes Ireland feels
And in her veins a glow of heat.
To her the lost old time, appeals
For resurrection, good to greet:
Not as a shape with spectral eyes,
But humanly maternal, young
In all that quickens pride, and wise
To speak the best her bards have sung.
You read her as a land distraught,
Where bitterest rebel passions seethe.
Look with a core of heart in thought,
For so is known the truth beneath.
She came to you a loathing bride,
And it has been no happy bed.
Believe in her as friend, allied
By bonds as close as those who wed.
Her speech is held for hatred's cry;
Her silence tells of treason hid:
Were it her aim to burst the tie,
She sees what iron laws forbid.
Excess of heart obscures from view
A head as keen as yours to count.
Trust her, that she may prove her true
In links whereof is love the fount.
May she not call herself her own?
That is her cry, and thence her spits
Of fury, thence her graceless tone
At justice given in bits and bits.
The limbs once raw with gnawing chains
Will fret at silken when God's beams
Of Freedom beckon o'er the plains
From mounts that show it more than dreams.
She, generous, craves your generous dole;
That will not rouse the crack of doom.
It ends the blundering past control
Simply to give her elbow-room.
Her offspring feels they are a race,
To be a nation is their claim;
Yet stronger bound in your embrace
Than when the tie was but a name.
A nation she, and formed to charm,
With heart for heart and hands all round.
No longer England's broken arm,
Would England know where strength is found.
And strength to-day is England's need;
To-morrow it may be for both
Salvation: heed the portents, heed
The warnings; free the mind from sloth.
Too long the pair have danced in mud,
With no advance from sun to sun.
Ah, what a bounding course of blood
Has England with an Ireland one!
Behold yon shadow cross the downs,
And off away to yeasty seas.
Lightly will fly old rancour's frowns
When solid with high heart stand these.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EXEXFGFG HIHIJXJB KLKLMNMN OPOPQRQR STSTUVUV WXWXYZYZ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1000101001 00010111 10011101 1010111 1101111 11000101 01110101 11010111 11010101 110010101 11011101 11110101 11110101 01111101 01001101 11111111 0111111 01011101 01011101 11110101 1110111 01111111 10111101 0111101 11110101 11010101 11010101 110100101 01111101 11110111 110101001 11111111 1100111001 11110111 110100101 1011011 0111101 11010111 11010101 11011101 01010111 11110111 11010101 11011111 01111101 11011111 0101011 01010111 11011101 11011111 11010111 110111001 0111101 0101111 1011111 11011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,942 |
Words | 378 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 222 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:55 min read
- 50 Views
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"Ireland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15476/ireland>.
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