Analysis of A Country God
Edmund Blunden 1896 (London) – 1974 (Long Melford)
WHEN groping farms are lanterned up
And stolchy ploughlands hid in grief,
And glimmering byroads catch the drop
That weeps from sprawling twig and leaf,
And heavy-hearted spins the wind
Among the tattered flags of Mirth,—
Then who but I flit to and fro,
With shuddering speech, with mope and mow,
And glass the eyes of Earth?
Then haunting by some moanish brook
Where lank and snaky brambles swim
Or where the hill pines swarthy look
I whirry through the dark and hymn
A dull-voiced dirge and threnody,
An echo of the world's sad drone
That now appals the friendly stars—
O wail for blind brave youth whose wars
Turn happiness to stone.
How rang my cavern-shades of old
To my melodious pipes, and then
My bright-haired bergomask patrolled
Each lawn and plot for laughter's din:
Never a sower flung broad cast,
No hedger brisked nor scythesman swung,
Nor maiden trod the purple press
But I was by to guard and bless
And for their solace sang.
* * * *
But now the sower's hand is writhed
In livid death, the bright rhythm stolen,
The gold grain flatted and unscythed,
The boars in the vineyard gnarled and sullen
Havocking the grapes ; and the eve-jar wind
Spins, and the spattered leaves of the glen
In mockery dance the death-gavotte;
With all my murmurous pipes forgot,
And summer not to come again.
Scheme | XAXABCDDC EFEFBGXXG HIHXXXJJX BKBKBIBXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111 011101 01001101 11110101 01010101 01010111 11111101 110011101 010111 1101111 1101101 11011101 1110101 011101 11010111 1110101 11111111 110011 11110111 110100101 111101 1101111 10010111 1101111 11010101 11111101 011101 1 1101111 0101011010 011101 0100101010 10100111 100101101 01001011 1111101 01011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,276 |
Words | 234 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 1, 9 |
Lines Amount | 37 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 206 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 92 Views
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