Analysis of Elliott
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Hands off! thou tithe-fat plunderer! play
No trick of priestcraft here!
Back, puny lordling! darest thou lay
A hand on Elliott's bier?
Alive, your rank and pomp, as dust,
Beneath his feet he trod.
He knew the locust swarm that cursed
The harvest-fields of God.
On these pale lips, the smothered thought
Which England's millions feel,
A fierce and fearful splendor caught,
As from his forge the steel.
Strong-armed as Thor, a shower of fire
His smitten anvil flung;
God's curse, Earth's wrong, dumb Hunger's ire,
He gave them all a tongue!
Then let the poor man's horny hands
Bear up the mighty dead,
And labor's swart and stalwart bands
Behind as mourners tread.
Leave cant and craft their baptized bounds,
Leave rank its minster floor;
Give England's green and daisied grounds
The poet of the poor!
Lay down upon his Sheaf's green verge
That brave old heart of oak,
With fitting dirge from sounding forge,
And pall of furnace smoke!
Where whirls the stone its dizzy rounds,
And axe and sledge are swung,
And, timing to their stormy sounds,
His stormy lays are sung.
There let the peasant's step be heard,
The grinder chant his rhyme,
Nor patron's praise nor dainty word
Befits the man or time.
No soft lament nor dreamer's sigh
For him whose words were bread;
The Runic rhyme and spell whereby
The foodless poor were fed!
Pile up the tombs of rank and pride,
O England, as thou wilt!
With pomp to nameless worth denied,
Emblazon titled guilt!
No part or lot in these we claim;
But, o'er the sounding wave,
A common right to Elliott's name,
A freehold in his grave!
Scheme | ABABXC XCXDXDXEXE FGFGHXHX XIXIHEHE JKJKLGLG MNMNOPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111 11111 1101111 0111001 01110111 011111 11010111 010111 11110101 110101 01010101 111101 1111010110 110101 1111111 111101 11011101 110101 01010101 011101 11011011 111101 1101011 010101 11011111 111111 11011101 011101 11011101 010111 01011101 110111 1101111 010111 1111101 010111 1101111 111101 0110101 01101 11011101 110111 11110101 010101 11110111 1100101 010111001 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,526 |
Words | 279 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 10, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 204 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:27 min read
- 67 Views
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"Elliott" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22888/elliott>.
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