Analysis of Cataclysm
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
We curse our lot; we gird at fate;
Like peevish children we complain;
Hope dies, and life grows desperate
Because of ease and pleasures salin.
Because bright fortune fails to smile
And pamper us, as once she used,
But frowns a little for the while,
To bleak despair we are reduced.
Yet, o'er a narrow stretch of sea,
Where lately smiled a city fair,
Falls cataclysmic agony,
And death in horrid shapes is there.
All in an instant men are hurled -
Who knew no foe, who earned no blame -
Out of a peaceful, sunlit world
'Mid shattered homes and seething flame.
Crazed women roam the littered street
Seeking their babes; with sobbing breath
They search grim ruins, there to meet
Fresh, ghastly evidence of death -
Death, creeping death, where men have lain
Trapped 'neath the press of heavy beams
Waiting thro' hours of nameless pain
Such as men know in frightful dreams.
And we complain! . . . Poor timid fools.
Because our luxuries grow less,
Each beats his breast and drones and drools
Of gloom and shattered happiness.
While there, by very earth betrayed,
Forsaken, doomed, men still are men;
And heroism there displayed
Preserves the name of Man again.
There, where the elements conspire
To end a world at one swift stroke.
Stirred by the flame of that grim pyre,
Divinity in Man awoke. . . .
Here, petulant, with tears and blame,
We gird against Fate's mild decree
Who should bow down our heads in shame
And thank our gods for sanctuary.
Scheme | XAXXBXBX CDCDEFEF GHGHAIAI XXCXJKJK LMLMFCFC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 111011111 11010101 1101110 011101001 01110111 01011111 11010101 11011101 110010111 11010101 1010100 01010111 10110111 11111111 1101011 11010101 11010101 10111101 11110111 11010011 11011111 11011101 101101101 11110101 01011101 011010011 11110101 11010100 11110101 01011111 0100101 01011101 110100010 11011111 110111110 01000101 11001101 11011101 111110101 011011100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,409 |
Words | 254 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 226 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 117 Views
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"Cataclysm" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6253/cataclysm>.
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