Analysis of Stonewall Jackson's Grave.
Margaret J Preston 1820 (Milton, Pennsylvania, ) – 1897 ( Baltimore, Maryland, )
A simple, sodded mound of earth,
Without a line above it;
With only daily votive flowers
To prove that any love it:
The token flag that silently
Each breeze's visit numbers,
Alone keeps martial ward above
The hero's dreamless slumbers.
No name? - no record? Ask the world;
The world has read his story -
If all its annals can unfold
A prouder tale of glory: -
If ever merely human life
Hath taught diviner moral, -
If ever round a worthier brow
Was twined a purer laurel!
A twelvemonth only, since his sword
Went flashing through the battle -
A twelvemonth only, since his ear
Heard war's last deadly rattle -
And yet, have countless pilgrim-feet
The pilgrim's guerdon paid him,
And weeping women come to see
The place where they have laid him.
Contending armies bring, in turn,
Their meed of praise or honor,
And Pallas here has paused to bind
The cypress wreath upon her:
It seems a holy sepulchre,
Whose sanctities can waken
Alike the love of friend or foe, -
Of Christian or of pagan.
THEY come to own his high emprise,
Who fled in frantic masses,
Before the glittering bayonet
That triumphed at Manassas:
Who witnessed Kernstown's fearful odds,
As on their ranks he thundered,
Defiant as the storied Greek,
Amid his brave three hundred!
They well recall the tiger spring,
The wise retreat, the rally,
The tireless march, the fierce pursuit,
Through many a mountain valley:
Cross Keys unlock new paths to fame,
And Port Republic's story
Wrests from his ever-vanquish'd foes,
Strange tributes to his glory.
Cold Harbor rises to their view, -
The Cedars' gloom is o'er them;
Antietam's rough and rugged heights,
Stretch mockingly before them:
The lurid flames of Fredericksburg
Right grimly they remember,
That lit the frozen night's retreat,
That wintry-wild December!
The largess of their praise is flung
With bounty, rare and regal;
- Is it because the vulture fears
No longer the dead eagle?
Nay, rather far accept it thus, -
An homage true and tender,
As soldier unto soldier's worth, -
As brave to brave will render,
But who shall weigh the wordless grief
That leaves in tears its traces,
As round their leader crowd again,
The bronzed and veteran faces!
The "Old Brigade" he loved so well -
The mountain men, who bound him
With bays of their own winning, ere
A tardier fame had crowned him;
The legions who had seen his glance
Across the carnage flashing,
And thrilled to catch his ringing "charge"
Above the volley crashing; -
Who oft had watched the lifted hand,
The inward trust betraying,
And felt their courage grow sublime,
While they beheld him praying!
Good knights and true as ever drew
Their swords with knightly Roland;
Or died at Sobieski's side,
For love of martyr'd Poland;
Or knelt with Cromwell's Ironsides;
Or sang with brave Gustavus;
Or on the plain of Austerlitz,
Breathed out their dying AVES!
Rare fame! rare name! - If chanted praise,
With all the world to listen, -
If pride that swells a nation's soul, -
If foemen's tears that glisten, -
If pilgrims' shrining love, - if grief
Which nought may soothe or sever, -
If THESE can consecrate, - this spot
Is sacred ground forever!
Scheme | ABCBDCXC XDXDXEFE XEXEGHDH XIXIFJXJ XKXLXXXX MDXDXDXD NOXOXIGI XEXELIAI PKXKXHXH XMXMXMXM NQXQXLCC XJXJPIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101111 0101011 11010110 1111011 01011100 111010 01110101 01011 11101101 0111110 11110101 0101110 11010101 11110 110101001 1101010 0110111 1101010 0110111 1111010 01110101 010111 01010111 0111111 01010101 1111110 01011111 0101010 110101 11110 01011111 1101110 11111101 1101010 01010010 1101010 1101101 1111110 01010101 0111110 1110101 0101010 010010101 11001010 11011111 0101010 11110101 1101110 11010111 01011101 110101 11011 01011100 1101010 11010101 1101010 01011111 1101010 11010101 1100110 11010111 1101010 11010101 1111110 11110101 1101110 11110101 01010010 01011111 0101111 11111101 011111 01011111 0101010 01111101 0101010 11110101 0101010 01110101 111110 11011101 1111010 11111 1111010 1111010 1111100 110111 111101 11111101 1101110 11110101 111110 1101111 1111110 1111011 1101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,048 |
Words | 556 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 96 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 203 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on April 05, 2023
- 2:51 min read
- 11 Views
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"Stonewall Jackson's Grave." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56116/stonewall-jackson%27s-grave.>.
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