Analysis of The King’s Evil
John Boyle O'Reilly 1844 (Dowth) – 1890 (Boston)
They brought them up from their huts in the fens,
The woeful sufferers gaunt and grim;
They flocked from the city's noisome dens
To the Monarch's throne to be touched by him.
'For his touch,' they whisper, 'is sovereign balm,
The anointed King has a power to heal.'
Oh, the piteous prayers as the royal palm
Is laid on their necks while they humbly kneel!
Blind hope! But the cruel and cold deceit
A rich reward to the palace brings;
A snare for the untaught People's feet,
And a courtier's lie for the good of Kings.
But the years are sands, and they slip away
Till the baseless wall in the sun lies bare;
The touch of the King has no balm to-day,
And the Right Divine is the People's share.
The word remains: but the Evil now
Is caused, not cured, by imperial hands,—
The lightless soul and the narrow brow,
The servile millions in armed bands;
The sweat-wrung gold from the peasant's toil
Flung merrily out by the gambling lord,
Who is reckless owner of serf and soil,
And master of church and law and sword.
But the night has receded: the dawn like a tide
Creeps slow round the world, till the feet of the throne
Are lapped by the waves that shall seethe and ride
Where the titles are gulfed and the shields overblown.
Our Kings are the same as the Kings of old,
But a Man stands up where there crouched a clown;
The Evil shall die when his hand grows bold,
And the touch of the People is laid on the Crown!
Scheme | ABABCDCD EAEAFGFG HAHAIJIJ KLKLMNMN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111001 010100101 11101011 101111111 1111101101 00101101011 101110101 1111111101 1110100101 010110101 01101101 001110111 1011101101 1010100111 0110111111 0010110101 010110101 1111101001 01100101 01010011 01111011 11001101001 1110101101 010110101 101101001101 11101101101 1110111101 10101100101 10110110111 1011111101 0101111111 001101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,406 |
Words | 273 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 275 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 67 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 112 Views
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