Analysis of The Rhymer’s Reply. Incense And Splendor
Incense and Splendor haunt me as I go.
Though my good works have been, alas, too few,
Though I do naught, High Heaven comes down to me,
And future ages pass in tall review.
I see the years to come as armies vast,
Stalking tremendous through the fields of time.
MAN is unborn. To-morrow he is born,
Flame-like to hover o’er the moil and grime,
Striving, aspiring till the shame is gone,
Sowing a million flowers, where now we mourn—
Laying new, precious pavements with a song,
Founding new shrines, the good streets to adorn.
I have seen lovers by those new-built walls
Clothed like the dawn in orange, gold and red.
Eyes flashing forth the glory-light of love
Under the wreaths that crowned each royal head.
Life was made greater by their sweetheart prayers.
Passion was turned to civic strength that day—
Piling the marbles, making fairer domes
With zeal that else had burned bright youth away.
I have seen priestesses of life go by
Gliding in samite through the incense-sea—
Innocent children marching with them there,
Singing in flowered robes, “THE EARTH IS FREE”:
While on the fair, deep-carved unfinished towers
Sentinels watched in armor, night and day—
Guarding the brazier-fires of hope and dream—
Wild was their peace, and dawn-bright their array!
Scheme | ABCBDEFEGFHFIJKJLMNMOCPCQMRM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101011111 1111110111 11111101111 010101011 1101111101 1001010111 1111110111 1111010101 1001010111 10010101111 1011010101 1011011101 1111011111 1101010101 1101010111 1001111101 111101111 1011110111 1001010101 1111111101 11111111 100110011 1001010111 1001010111 11011101010 1001010101 100100101101 1111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,254 |
Words | 217 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 995 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 215 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 86 Views
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"The Rhymer’s Reply. Incense And Splendor" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/37394/the-rhymer%E2%80%99s-reply.-incense-and-splendor>.
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