Analysis of The Furrow And The Hearth
Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)
I
STRIDE the hill, Sower,
Up to the sky ridge,
Flinging the seed,
Scattering, exultant!
Mouthing great rhythms
To the long sea-beats
On the wide shore, behind
The ridge of the hillside.
Below in the darkness
The slumber of mothers,
The cradles at rest,
The fire-seed sleeping
Deep in white ashes!
Give to darkness and sleep,
O Sower, O Seer!
Give me to the earth
With the seed I would enter!
Oh, the growth through the silence
From strength to new strength;
Then the strong bursting forth
Against primal forces,
To laugh in the sunshine,
To gladden the world!
II
Who will bring the red fire
Unto a new hearth?
Who will lay the wide stone
On the waste of the earth?
Who is fain to begin
To build day by day
To raise up his house
Of the moist yellow clay?
There's clay for the making
Moist in the pit,
There are horses to trample
The rushes through it.
Above where the wild duck
Arise up and fly,
There one can build
To the wind and the sky.
There are boughs in the forest
To pluck young and green,
O'er them thatch of the crop
Shall be heavy and clean.
I speak unto him
Who in dead of the night
Sees the red streaks
In the ash deep and white;
While around him he hears
Men stir in their rest,
And the stir of the babe
That is close to the breast!
He shall arise,
He shall go forth alone,
Lay stone on the earth,
And bring fire to stone.
Scheme | ABXXXXXXX XXCDX XXEBXXXXXX ABXFE XGXG DHXH XAXA XIXI XJXJ XCXC XFEF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 10110 11011 1001 100010 10110 10111 101101 01101 010010 010110 01011 010110 10110 111001 11011 11101 1011110 1011010 11111 101101 011010 11001 11001 1 1110110 10011 111011 101101 111101 11111 11111 101101 111010 1001 1110110 01011 011011 01101 1111 101001 1110010 11101 1011101 111001 11101 101101 1011 001101 101111 11011 001101 111101 1101 111101 11101 011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,287 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 5, 10, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 57 |
Letters per line (avg) | 18 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 94 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 36 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Furrow And The Hearth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28510/the-furrow-and-the-hearth>.
Discuss this Padraic Colum poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In