Analysis of The Sightless Man
Out of the night a crash,
A roar, a rampart of light;
A flame that leaped like a lash,
Searing forever my sight;
Out of the night a flash,
Then, oh, forever the Night!
Here in the dark I sit,
I who so loved the sun;
Supple and strong and fit,
In the dark till my days be done;
Aye, that's the hell of it,
Stalwart and twenty-one.
Marie is stanch and true,
Willing to be my wife;
Swears she has eyes for two . . .
Aye, but it's long, is Life.
What is a lad to do
With his heart and his brain at strife?
There now, my pipe is out;
No one to give me a light;
I grope and I grope about.
Well, it is nearly night;
Sleep may resolve my doubt,
Help me to reason right. . . .
(He sleeps and dreams.)
I heard them whispering there by the bed . . .
Oh, but the ears of the blind are quick!
Every treacherous word they said
Was a stab of pain and my heart turned sick.
Then lip met lip and they looked at me,
Sitting bent by the fallen fire,
And they laughed to think that I couldn't see;
But I felt the flame of their hot desire.
He's helping Marie to work the farm,
A dashing, upstanding chap, they say;
And look at me with my flabby arm,
And the fat of sloth, and my face of clay --
Look at me as I sit and sit,
By the side of a fire that's seldom lit,
Sagging and weary the livelong day,
When every one else is out on the field,
Sowing the seed for a golden yield,
Or tossing around the new-mown hay. . . .
Oh, the shimmering wheat that frets the sky,
Gold of plenty and blue of hope,
I'm seeing it all with an inner eye
As out of the door I grope and grope.
And I hear my wife and her lover there,
Whispering, whispering, round the rick,
Mocking me and my sightless stare,
As I fumble and stumble everywhere,
Slapping and tapping with my stick;
Old and weary at thirty-one,
Heartsick, wishing it all was done.
Oh, I'll tap my way around to the byre,
And I'll hear the cows as they chew their hay;
There at least there is none to tire,
There at least I am not in the way.
And they'll look at me with their velvet eyes
And I'll stroke their flanks with my woman's hand,
And they'll answer to me with soft replies,
And somehow I fancy they'll understand.
And the horses too, they know me well;
I'm sure that they pity my wretched lot,
And the big fat ram with the jingling bell . . .
Oh, the beasts are the only friends I've got.
And my old dog, too, he loves me more,
I think, than ever he did before.
Thank God for the beasts that are all so kind,
That know and pity the helpless blind!
Ha! they're coming, the loving pair.
My hand's a-shake as my pipe I fill.
What if I steal on them unaware
With a reaping-hook, to kill, to kill? . . .
I'll do it . . . they're there in the mow of hay,
I hear them saying: "He's out of the way!"
Hark! how they're kissing and whispering. . . .
Closer I creep . . . I crouch . . . I spring. . . .
Ugh! What a horrible dream I've had!
And it isn't real . . . I'm glad, I'm glad!
Marie is good and Marie is true . . .
But now I know what it's best to do.
I'll sell the farm and I'll seek my kind,
I'll live apart with my fellow-blind,
And we'll eat and drink, and we'll laugh and joke,
And we'll talk of our battles, and smoke and smoke;
And brushes of bristle we'll make for sale,
While one of us reads a book of Braille.
And there will be music and dancing too,
And we'll seek to fashion our life anew;
And we'll walk the highways hand in hand,
The Brotherhood of the Sightless Band;
Till the years at last shall bring respite
And our night is lost in the Greater Night.
Scheme | ABABAB CDCDCD EFEFEF GBGBGB X HIHIJKJKLMLMCCMNNM OPOPQIQQIDDEMKMRSRSTUTUVVWW QXQXMMYY ZZEEWW1 1 2 2 EESSCB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101 010111 0111101 1001011 110101 1101001 100111 111101 100101 00111111 110111 100101 011101 101111 111111 111111 110111 11101111 111111 1111101 1101101 111101 110111 111101 1101 1111001101 110110111 100100111 1011101111 111101111 101101010 0111111101 11101111010 110011101 01010111 011111101 0011101111 11111101 10110101101 10010011 11001111101 100110101 110010111 1010011101 11100111 1101111101 111011101 0111100101 100100101 1010111 111001010 10010111 10101101 1101111 1111101101 0110111111 111111110 111111001 0111111101 0111111101 0110111101 01110101 001011111 1111101101 001111011 1011010111 011111111 111101101 1110111111 110100101 11100101 110111111 11111101 101011111 1111100111 1111011101 111100100 10111111 110100111 011011111 011100111 111111111 110101111 110111101 0110101101 011110100101 0101101111 111110111 0111100101 01111010101 01101101 0101011 101111110 01011100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,455 |
Words | 691 |
Sentences | 73 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 1, 18, 27, 8, 16 |
Lines Amount | 94 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 286 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 80 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:37 min read
- 56 Views
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"The Sightless Man" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32645/the-sightless-man>.
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