Analysis of Should You Wish To Know The Source
Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1873 (Ivnitsa, Volhynian Governorate) – 1934 (Vienna)
Should you wish to know the Source,
From which your brothers drew…
Their strength of soul…
Their comfort, courage, patience, trust,
And iron might to bear their hardships
And suffer without end or measure?
And should you wish to see the Fort
Wherein your fathers refuge sought.
And all their sacred teasures hid,
The refuge that has still preserved
Your nation's soul intact and pure
And when despised, and scorned, and scoffed,
Their faith they did not shame?
And should you wish to see and know
Their Mother, faithful, loving, kind
Who…sheltered them and shielded them.
And lulled them on her lap to sleep?
If you, my brother, know not
Then enter now the House of God,
The House of study, old and gray,
Throughout the scorching summer days
Thoughout the gloomy winter nights,
At morning midday or at eve…
And there you may still behold,
A group of Jews from the exile who bore the yoke of its burden who forget their toil,
through a worn out page of the Talmud.
And then your heart shall guess the truth,
That you have touched the sacred ground
Of a great people's house of life.
And that your eys do gaze upon
The treasure of a nation's soul.
Scheme | XXAXXX XXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXA |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111101 111101 1111 11010101 010111110 010011110 01111101 01110101 0111011 01011101 11010101 01010101 111111 01111101 11010101 11010101 01110111 1111011 11010111 01110101 01010101 1010101 1101111 0111101 01111011101111010111 101111010 01111101 11110101 10110111 01111101 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,131 |
Words | 209 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 7, 4, 9, 5 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 181 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 134 Views
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