Analysis of The Disenthralled
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
HE had bowed down to drunkenness,
An abject worshipper:
The pride of manhood's pulse had grown
Too faint and cold to stir;
And he had given his spirit up
To the unblessëd thrall,
And bowing to the poison cup,
He gloried in his fall!
There came a change —the cloud rolled off,
And light fell on his brain —
And like the passing of a dream
That cometh not again,
The shadow of the spirit fled.
He saw the gulf before,
He shuddered at the waste behind,
And was a man once more.
He shook the serpent folds away,
That gathered round his heart,
As shakes the swaying forest-oak
Its poison vine apart;
He stood erect; returning pride
Grew terrible within,
And conscience sat in judgment, on
His most familiar sin.
The light of Intellect again
Along his pathway shone;
And Reason like a monarch sat
Upon his olden throne.
The honored and the wise once more
Within his presence came;
And lingered oft on lovely lips
His once forbidden name.
There may be glory in the might,
That treadeth nations down;
Wreaths for the crimson conqueror,
Pride for the kingly crown;
But nobler is that triumph hour,
The disenthralled shall find,
When evil passion boweth down,
Unto the Godlike mind!
Scheme | ABCBDEDEFGHIJBKBLMNMOPQPICRCBSTSUVBVBKVK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 11111100 1101 0111111 110111 011101101 10111 01010101 11011 11010111 011111 01010101 110101 0110101 110101 11010101 010111 11010101 110111 11010101 110101 11010101 110001 01010101 110101 0111001 01111 0101011 011101 01000111 011101 01011101 111001 11110001 11101 11010100 110101 110111010 0111 1101011 10011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,146 |
Words | 213 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 926 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 211 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 115 Views
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"The Disenthralled" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23084/the-disenthralled>.
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