Analysis of America
William Cullen Bryant 1794 (Cummington) – 1878 (New York City)
OH mother of a mighty race,
Yet lovely in thy youthful grace!
The elder dames, thy haughty peers,
Admire and hate thy blooming years.
With words of shame
And taunts of scorn they join thy name.
For on thy cheeks the glow is spread
That tints thy morning hills with red;
Thy step—the wild deer’s rustling feet
Within thy woods are not more fleet;
Thy hopeful eye
Is bright as thine own sunny sky.
Ay, let them rail—those haughty ones,
While safe thou dwellest with thy sons.
They do not know how loved thou art,
How many a fond and fearless heart
Would rise to throw
Its life between thee and the foe.
They know not, in their hate and pride,
What virtues with thy children bide;
How true, how good, thy graceful maids
Make bright, like flowers, the valley shades;
What generous men
Spring, like thine oaks, by hill and glen;—
What cordial welcomes greet the guest
By thy lone rivers of the West;
How faith is kept, and truth revered,
And man is loved, and God is feared,
In woodland homes,
And where the ocean border foams.
There ’s freedom at thy gates and rest
For Earth’s down-trodden and opprest,
A shelter for the hunted head,
For the starved laborer toil and bread.
Power, at thy bounds,
Stops and calls back his baffled hounds.
Oh, fair young mother! on thy brow
Shall sit a nobler grace than now.
Deep in the brightness of the skies
The thronging years in glory rise,
And, as they fleet,
Drop strength and riches at thy feet.
Thine eye, with every coming hour,
Shall brighten, and thy form shall tower;
And when thy sisters, elder born,
Would brand thy name with words of scorn,
Before thine eye,
Upon their lips the taunt shall die.
Scheme | AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHII JJKKLL MMNNOO MDDDPP QQRREE SSTTFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11001101 01011101 01011101 1111 01111111 11110111 11110111 11011101 01111111 1101 11111101 11111101 1111111 11111111 110010101 1111 11011001 11101101 11011101 11111101 111100101 11001 11111101 11010101 11110101 11110101 01110111 011 01010101 111011101 1111001 01010101 101100101 10111 10111101 11110111 11010111 10010101 0110101 0111 11010111 1111001010 110011110 01110101 11111111 0111 01110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,622 |
Words | 304 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 160 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 25, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 98 Views
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"America" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40273/america>.
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