Analysis of The Falconer Of God
Stephen Vincent Benet 1898 (Bethlehem) – 1943 (New York City)
I flung my soul to the air like a falcon flying.
I said, “Wait on, wait on, while I ride below!
I shall start a heron soon
In the marsh beneath the moon—
A strange white heron rising with silver on its wings,
Rising and crying
Wordless, wondrous things;
The secret of the stars, of the world’s heart-strings
The answer to their woe.
Then stoop thou upon him, and grip and hold him so!”
My wild soul waited on as falcons hover.
I beat the reedy fens as I trampled put.
I heard the mournful loon
In the marsh beneath the moon.
And then, with feathery thunder, the bird of my desire
Broke from the cover
Flashing silver fire.
High up among the stars I saw his pinions spire.
The pale clouds gazed aghast
As my falcon stooped upon him, and gript and held him fast.
My soul dropped through the air—with heavenly plunder?—
Gripping the dazzling bird my dreaming knew?
Nay! but a piteous freight,
A dark and heavy weight
Despoiled of silver plumage, its voice forever stilled—
All of the wonder
Gone that ever filled
Its guise with glory. O bird that I have killed,
How brilliantly you flew
Across my rapturous vision when first I dreamed of you!
Yet I fling my soul on high with new endeavor,
And I ride the world below with a joyful mind.
I shall start a heron soon
In the marsh beneath the moon—
A wondrous silver heron its inner darkness fledges!
I beat forever
The fens and the sedges.
The pledge is still the same—for all disastrous pledges,
All hopes resigned!
My soul still flies above me for the quarry it shall find!
Scheme | abCCdaddbb excCeeexff eghhieiigg ejCCdedxjj |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 1111101101010 11111111101 1110101 0010101 0111010110111 10010 10101 01010110111 010111 111011010111 11110111010 11010111101 110101 0010101 011100100111010 11010 101010 11010111111 011101 11101011010111 111101110010 10010011101 11011 010101 111010110101 11010 11101 11110111111 110011 01110010111111 111111111010 011010110101 1110101 0010101 0101010110101 11010 01001 0111011101010 1101 11110111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,545 |
Words | 287 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 298 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 59 Views
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"The Falconer Of God" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35818/the-falconer-of-god>.
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