Analysis of On Freedom
Kahlil Gibran 1883 (Bsharri, Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate) – 1931 ( New York City)
And an orator said, Speak to us of Freedom.
And he answered:
At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,
Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.
Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet your rise above them naked and unbound.
And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?
If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded,the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.
Scheme | ABAC X B XX XX XXC XXXX XX XA |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011001111110 0110 1010101110111110010101110 10111001010100111111 10011010000110101110100111110101001 011101111110111100010110100101011011111110101001 1111011111101011110101001 1101111011011101110001 011110111010111011110111010110011110 0111111010101111111000101011 011111011111101111011 111101111010111101111011110 110011110111111001111011101011 0111010110111111010011101 111010101001110100011100010111 01110111111111101110101011 011101110101111101101001101 111101110010101001000101000100010111101 11101111010111 01011011101110010110101 0111011101100101010101010 |
Characters | 2,349 |
Words | 440 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 85 |
Words per line (avg) | 21 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 199 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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"On Freedom" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54014/on-freedom>.
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