Analysis of Flower-De-Luce: Christmas Bells
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
'There is no peace on earth,' I said;
'For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!'
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
'God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!'
Scheme | aabbC ddeeC aaffC gghhC xxiiC jjeeC kkllc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (57%) |
Metre | 11011101 11010101 0101 0101 11111111 01110111 0111100 1101 00101 11111111 11010111 01011111 0101 0101 11111111 111111 01010001 0101 0101 11111111 1111111 01110100 0101 011 11111111 00011111 11111111 1111 0101 11111111 11011101 11111111 0111 0101 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 993 |
Words | 195 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 112 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 59 Views
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"Flower-De-Luce: Christmas Bells" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18594/flower-de-luce%3A-christmas-bells>.
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