Analysis of Fragment
Charlotte Smith 1749 (London) – 1806 (Tilford, Surrey)
Descriptive of the miseries of War; from a Poem
called 'The Emigrants,' printed in 1793.
TO a wild mountain, whose bare summit hides
Its broken eminence in clouds; whose steeps
Are dark with woods: where the receding rocks
Are worn with torrents of dissolving snow;
A wretched woman, pale and breathless, flies,
And, gazing round her, listens to the sound
Of hostile footsteps:--No! they die away--
Nor noise remains, but of the cataract,
Or surly breeze of night, that mutters low
Among the thickets, where she trembling seeks
A temporary shelter--Clasping close
To her quick throbbing heart her sleeping child,
All she could rescue of the innocent group
That yesterday surrounded her--Escaped
Almost by miracle!--Fear, frantic Fear,
Wing'd her weak feet; yet, half repenting now
Her headlong haste, she wishes she had staid
To die with those affrighted Fancy paints
The lawless soldiers' victims--Hark! again
The driving tempest bears the cry of Death;
And with deep, sudden thunder, the dread sound
Of cannon vibrates on the tremulous earth;
While, bursting in the air, the murderous bomb
Glares o'er her mansion--Where the splinters fall
Like scatter'd comets, its destructive path
Is mark'd by wreaths of flame!--Then, overwhelm'd
Beneath accumulated horror, sinks
The desolate mourner!
The feudal chief, whose gothic battlements
Frown on the plain beneath, returning home
From distant lands, alone, and in disguise,
Gains at the fall of night his castle walls,
But, at the silent gate no porter sits
To wait his lord's admittance!--In the courts
All is drear stillness!--Guessing but too well
The fatal truth, he shudders as he goes
Through the mute hall; where, by the blunted light
That the dim moon through painted casement lends,
He sees that devastation has been there;
Then, while each hideous image to his mind
Rises terrific, o'er a bleeding corse
Stumbling he falls; another intercepts
His staggering feet--All, all who used to
With joy to meet him, all his family
Lie murder'd in his way!--And the day dawns
On a wild raving maniac, whom a fate
So sudden and calamitous has robb'd
Of reason; and who round his vacant walls
Screams unregarded, and reproaches Heaven!
Scheme | XXAA XBCDXXBXXXXXXXXXXXDXXXXXXXXXCEXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXEX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010100111010 10100100 1011011101 1101000111 1111100101 1111010101 0101010101 0101010101 110111101 1101110100 1101111101 01010111001 01001011 1011010101 11110101001 110010001 111001101 1011110101 011110111 11111101 0101010101 0101010111 0111010011 11010101001 11000101001 1100101011 1101010101 111111101 010100101 010010 0101110100 1101010101 1101010001 1101111101 1101011101 1111010001 1111010111 0101110111 1011110101 101111011 111010111 11110010111 10010100101 1001101001 1100111111 1111111100 1100110011 1011010101 1100010011 1100111101 110110 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,140 |
Words | 364 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 40, 7 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 577 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 118 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:51 min read
- 79 Views
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"Fragment" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5571/fragment>.
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