Analysis of Beauty And Hate

John Le Gay Brereton 1871 (Sydney) – 1933



I have sought and followed you, drunk with your sacred wine;
Led out by a laughing wind on a tumbling sea,
On crags amid clouds, in cups that allure the bee,
And deep in the gem-lit gloom of the tortuous mine,
And on widespread wings where the great worlds dance and shine
I have sought by the golden light; but have bent the knee
At last where you lie, a humble goddess and free,
Naked and flushed in the warmth of a crimson shrine.
The hordes of hate have trampled your blooms in mire,
And cackle and roar as their mockery priests blaspheme,
And sing the marching hymn of a wingless might.
They forge their god in the heat of unholy fire
The squat strong incubus born of an evil dream;
And it shrinks and crumbles away in the golden light.


Scheme ABBAABBACDEFDE
Poetic Form
Metre 1110101111101 1110101101001 110110110101 0100111101001 011111011101 1111010111101 111110101001 100100110101 01111101101 010011110011 0101011011 1111001101010 0111111101 0110100100101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 736
Words 143
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 42
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 585
Words per stanza (avg) 141
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
95

John Le Gay Brereton

John Le Gay Brereton was an Australian poet, critic and professor of English at the University of Sydney. He was the first president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers when it was formed in Sydney in 1928. more…

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