Analysis of Languages
Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)
There are no handles upon a language
Whereby men take hold of it
And mark it with signs for its remembrance.
It is a river, this language,
Once in a thousand years
Breaking a new course
Changing its way to the ocean.
It is mountain effluvia
Moving to valleys
And from nation to nation
Crossing borders and mixing.
Languages die like rivers.
Words wrapped round your tongue today
And broken to shape of thought
Between your teeth and lips speaking
Now and today
Shall be faded hieroglyphics
Ten thousand years from now.
Sing--and singing--remember
Your song dies and changes
And is not here to-morrow
Any more than the wind
Blowing ten thousand years ago.
| Scheme | ABCADEFGHFIJKLIKMNOPQRQ |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1111001010 0111111 0111111010 11010110 100101 10011 10111010 11101 10110 0110110 1010010 1001110 1111101 0101111 01110110 1001 1110010 110111 1010010 111010 0111110 101101 10110101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 640 |
| Words | 116 |
| Sentences | 7 |
| Stanzas | 1 |
| Stanza Lengths | 23 |
| Lines Amount | 23 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
| Words per line (avg) | 5 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 528 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 114 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 13, 2023
- 34 sec read
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"Languages" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4701/languages>.
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