Analysis of The Watchman

Lucy Maud Montgomery 1874 (New London, Prince Edward Island) – 1942 (Toronto)



And for fear of Him the keepers did shake and become as dead men. ­-Matthew 28 and 4

My Claudia, it is long since we have met,
So kissed, so held each other heart to heart!
I thought to greet thee as a conqueror comes,
Bearing the trophies of his prowess home,
But Jove hath willed it should be otherwise­
Jove, say I? Nay, some mightier stranger-god
Who thus hath laid his heavy hand on me,
No victor, Claudia, but a broken man
Who seeks to hide his weakness in thy love.

How beautiful thou art! The years have brought
An added splendor to thy loveliness,
With passion of dark eye and lip rose-red
Struggling between its dimple and its pride.
And yet there is somewhat that glooms between
Thy love and mine; come, girdle me about
With thy true arms, and pillow on thy breast
This aching and bewildered head of mine;
Here, where the fountain glitters in the sun
Among the saffron lilies, I will tell­
If so that words will answer my desire­
The shameful fate that hath befallen me.

Down in Jerusalem they slew a man,
Or god­it may be that he was a god­
Those mad, wild Jews whom Pontius Pilate rules.
Thou knowest Pilate, Claudia­ -- a vain man,
Too weak to govern such a howling horde
As those same Jews. This man they crucified.
I knew nought of him­had not heard his name
Until the day they dragged him to his death;
Then all tongues wagged about him and his deeds;
Some said that he had claimed to be their King,
Some that he had blasphemed their deity
'Twas certain he was poor and meanly born,
No warrior he, nor hero; and he taught
Doctrines that surely would upset the world;
And so they killed him to be rid of him­
Wise, very wise, if he were only man,
Not quite so wise if he were half a god!

I know that strange things happened when he died­
There was a darkness and an agony,
And some were vastly frightened­not so I!
What cared I if that mob of reeking Jews
Had brought a nameless curse upon their heads ?
I had no part in that blood-guiltiness.
At least he died; and some few friends of his­
I think he had not very many friends­
Took him and laid him in a garden tomb.
A watch was set about the sepulchre,
Lest these, his friends, should hide him and proclaim
That he had risen as he had fore-told.
Laugh not, my Claudia. I laughed when I heard
The prophecy. I would I had not laughed!

I, Maximus, was chosen for the guard
With all my trusty fellows. Pilate knew
I was a man who had no foolish heart
Of softness all unworthy of a man!
My eyes had looked upon a tortured slave
As on a beetle crushed beneath my tread;
I gloried in the splendid strife of war,
Lusting for conquest; I had won the praise
Of our stern general on a scarlet field;
Red in my veins the warrior passion ran,
For I had sprung from heroes, Roman born!

That second night we watched before the tomb;
My men were merry; on the velvet turf,
Bestarred with early blossoms of the Spring,
They diced with jest and laughter; all around
The moonlight washed us like a silver lake,
Save where that silent, sealéd sepulchre
Was hung with shadow as a purple pall.
A faint wind stirred among the olive boughs­
Methinks I hear the sighing of that wind
In all sounds since, it was so dumbly sad;
But as the night wore on it died away
And all was deadly stillness; Claudia,
That stillness was most awful, as if some
Great heart had broken and so ceased to beat!
I thought of many things, but found no joy
In any thought, even the thought of thee;
The moon waned in the west and sickly grew
Her light sucked from her in the breaking dawn­
Never was dawn so welcome as that pale,
Faint glimmer in the cloudless, brooding sky!

Claudia, how may I tell what came to pass?
I have been mocked at when I told the tale
For a crazed dreamer punished by the gods
Because he slept on guard; but mock not thou!
I could not bear it if thy lips should mock
The vision dread of that Judean morn.

Sudden the pallid east was all aflame
With radiance that beat upon our eyes
As from noonday sun; and then we saw
Two shapes that were as the immortal gods
Standing before the tomb; around me fell
My men as dead; but I, though through my veins
Ran a cold tremor never known before,
Withstood the shock and saw one shining shape
Roll back the stone; the whole world seemed ablaze,
And through the garden came a rushing wind
Thundering a paeon as of victory.

Then that dead man came forth! Oh, Claudia,
If thou coulds't but have seen th


Scheme X XABXCDEFX GBHIXXXXXJKE FDXFXILXXMENGXXFD IEOXXBXXPKLXXX XQAFXHRSXFN PXMXXKXXTXXUXXXEQXVO XVWXXN LCXWJXRXSTE UX
Poetic Form
Metre 0111101011001111100 11001111111 1111110111 11111101001 1001011101 111111110 11111100101 1111110111 11010010101 1111110011 1100110111 11010111 1101110111 10001110011 0111111101 1101110101 1111010111 1100010111 1101010001 0101010111 11111101010 0101110101 1001001101 1111111101 111111011 111100011 1111010101 111111110 1111111111 0101111111 1111011011 1111111111 111111100 110111011 11001110011 1011010101 0111111111 1101110101 1111110101 1111110111 1101001100 0101010111 1111111101 1101010111 11110111 1111011111 1111110101 1101100101 01110101 1111111001 1111011111 11110011111 0100111111 11110101 111101011 1101111101 1101010101 1111010101 1101010111 110010111 1011011101 110110010101 10110100101 1111110101 1101110101 1101010101 111010101 1111010101 011110101 11110111 111110101 0111010101 111010111 011111111 1101111101 0111010100 1101110111 1111001111 1111011111 0101100111 0110010101 0111000101 1011110111 1100010101 10011111111 1111111101 1011010101 0111111111 1111111111 01011111 1001011101 11001101101 11110111 1110100101 1001010111 1111111111 1011010101 0101011101 1101011101 0101010101 1000111100 1111111100 11111111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 4,344
Words 840
Sentences 31
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 1, 9, 12, 17, 14, 11, 20, 6, 11, 2
Lines Amount 103
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 342
Words per stanza (avg) 84
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

4:12 min read
32

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE, called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L. more…

All Lucy Maud Montgomery poems | Lucy Maud Montgomery Books

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