Analysis of Hellas
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)
THE world's great age begins anew,
The golden years return,
The earth doth like a snake renew
Her winter weeds outworn;
Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.
A brighter Hellas rears its mountains
From waves serener far;
A new Peneus rolls his fountains
Against the morning star;
Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep
Young Cyclads on a sunnier deep.
A loftier Argo cleaves the main,
Fraught with a later prize;
Another Orpheus sings again,
And loves, and weeps, and dies;
A new Ulysses leaves once more
Calypso for his native shore.
O write no more the tale of Troy,
If earth Death's scroll must be--
Nor mix with Laian rage the joy
Which dawns upon the free,
Although a subtler Sphinx renew
Riddles of death Thebes never knew.
Another Athens shall arise,
And to remoter time
Bequeath, like sunset to the skies,
The splendour of its prime;
And leave, if naught so bright may live,
All earth can take or Heaven can give.
Saturn and Love their long repose
Shall burst, more bright and good
Than all who fell, than One who rose,
Than many unsubdued:
Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers,
But votive tears and symbol flowers.
O cease! must hate and death return?
Cease! must men kill and die?
Cease! drain not to its dregs the urn
Of bitter prophecy!
The world is weary of the past--
O might it die or rest at last!
Scheme | ABAACC DEDEFF XGXGHH IJIJAA GKGKXX LMLMXX BXBJNN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110101 010101 01110101 01011 1010101001 11100101 01011110 1111 0111110 010101 1101111 111011 010010101 110101 010100101 010101 01010111 0111101 11110111 111111 1111101 110101 10100101 10111101 01010101 0111 0111101 01111 01111111 111111011 10011101 111101 11111111 1101 11111101 11101010 11110101 111101 11111101 110100 01110101 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,406 |
Words | 247 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 152 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 74 Views
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"Hellas" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29122/hellas>.
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