Analysis of Ballade Of Cleopatra's Needle

Andrew Lang 1844 (Selkirk, Scottish Borders) – 1912 (Banchory)



Ye giant shades of RA and TUM,
Ye ghosts of gods Egyptian,
If murmurs of our planet come
To exiles in the precincts wan
Where, fetish or Olympian,
To help or harm no more ye list,
Look down, if look ye may, and scan
This monument in London mist!

Behold, the hieroglyphs are dumb
That once were read of him that ran
When seistron, cymbal, trump, and drum
Wild music of the Bull began;
When through the chanting priestly clan
Walk'd Ramses, and the high sun kiss'd
This stone, with blessing scored and ban -
This monument in London mist.

The stone endures though gods be numb;
Though human effort, plot, and plan
Be sifted, drifted, like the sum
Of sands in wastes Arabian.
What king may deem him more than man,
What priest says Faith can Time resist
While THIS endures to mark their span -
This monument in London mist?

Prince, the stone's shade on your divan
Falls; it is longer than ye wist:
It preaches, as Time's gnomon can,
This monument in London mist!


Scheme abaxbcdC adaddcdC adabdcdC dcdC
Poetic Form
Metre 11011101 1111010 110110101 110011 11010100 11111111 11111101 11000101 0100111 11011111 1110101 11010101 11010101 1100111 11110101 11000101 01011111 11010101 11010101 11010100 11111111 11111101 11011111 11000101 10111101 11110111 1101111 11000101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 944
Words 180
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 186
Words per stanza (avg) 44
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

55 sec read
54

Andrew Lang

Andrew Richard Lang FRS CBE was a British scientist and crystallographer. more…

All Andrew Lang poems | Andrew Lang Books

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