Analysis of Bayard Taylor
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
I.
'And where now, Bayard, will thy footsteps tend?'
My sister asked our guest one winter's day.
Smiling he answered in the Friends' sweet way
Common to both: 'Wherever thou shall send!
What wouldst thou have me see for thee?' She laughed,
Her dark eyes dancing in the wood-fire's glow
'Loffoden isles, the Kilpis, and the low,
Unsetting sun on Finmark's fishing-craft.'
'All these and more I soon shall see for thee!'
He answered cheerily: and he kept his pledge
On Lapland snows, the North Cape's windy wedge,
And Tromso freezing in its winter sea.
He went and came. But no man knows the track
Of his last journey, and he comes not back!
II.
He brought us wonders of the new and old;
We shared all climes with him. The Arab's tent
To him its story-telling secret lent.
And, pleased, we listened to the tales he told.
His task, beguiled with songs that shall endure,
In manly, honest thoroughness he wrought;
From humble home-lays to the heights of thought
Slowly he climbed, but every step was sure.
How, with the generous pride that friendship hath,
We, who so loved him, saw at last the crown
Of civic honor on his brows pressed down,
Rejoiced, and knew not that the gift was death.
And now for him, whose praise in deafened ears
Two nations speak, we answer but with tears!
III.
O Vale of Chester! trod by him so oft,
Green as thy June turf keep his memory. Let
Nor wood, nor dell, nor storied stream forget,
Nor winds that blow round lonely Cedarcroft;
Let the home voices greet him in the far,
Strange land that holds him; let the messages
Of love pursue him o'er the chartless seas
And unmapped vastness of his unknown star
Love's language, heard beyond the loud discourse
Of perishable fame, in every sphere
Itself interprets; and its utterance here
Somewhere in God's unfolding universe
Shall reach our traveller, softening the surprise
Of his rapt gaze on unfamiliar skies!
Scheme | ABCCBDEEDFGGFHH AIJJIKLLKXMMXXX AXNNBOXXOXXXXPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (22%) |
Metre | 1 011101111 11011011101 1011000111 1011010111 1111111111 01110001101 1101001 1111101 1101111111 110101111 111011101 011001101 1101111101 1111001111 1 1111010101 111111011 1111010101 0111010111 1101111101 0101010011 1101110111 10111100111 11010011101 1111111101 1101011111 0101110111 011111011 1101110111 1 1111011111 11111111001 1111110101 11111101 1011011001 1111110100 1101110011 011011011 1101010110 11000101001 01010011001 10101010 1110100100001 111110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,848 |
Words | 340 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 15, 15, 15 |
Lines Amount | 45 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 490 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 111 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 44 Views
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"Bayard Taylor" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22859/bayard-taylor>.
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