Analysis of My soul is sunk in all-suffusing shame

Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)



My soul is sunk in all-suffusing shame;
Yet not for any individual sin,
But that the world's original fair fame-
My own land's most-is not what it hath been.
Shrieks of intolerable bondage smite,
Without response, its comfortable ears,
Making a craven compromise with Might,
For their own luxury, of others' tears.
Better than this the sanguinary crash
Of fratricidal strokes, and nerveful hate!

So do I hope to hear the sabres clash
And tumbrils rattle when the snows abate.
Love peace who will-I for mankind prefer,
To dungeon or disgrace, a sepulchre.


Scheme ABABCXCXDC DCEE
Poetic Form
Metre 1111010101 1111001001 1101010011 1111111111 1101000101 0101110001 100101011 1111001101 1011011 111011 1111110101 011010101 1111111101 11010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 549
Words 95
Sentences 6
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 4
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 220
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

29 sec read
39

Alfred Austin

Alfred Austin DL was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896 upon the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. more…

All Alfred Austin poems | Alfred Austin Books

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