Analysis of Opening lines of Eþandun: Epic Poem
Pour your glory, Lord, on the struggling king,
who by your hand ransomed the ravaged land;
illuminate the faces of your people,
who bled for you on every slaughterfield;
and kindle, Comforter, our uncouth hearts
that we may burn to do your will and earn
the blessings, not the curses, of our ancestors.
The pagan Danes had conquered the four kingdoms.
Clerics and kings, churls and thanes they’d slain,
while the living they plundered and enslaved.
Alfred, caked with the blood of friend and foe,
tasted the dregs of that envenomed horn,
but, granted faith and craft by our dear Savior,
he steeped old Godrum’s host in faith and fear
and steered the stubborn oarsmen from our soil. . .
Scheme | ABCBDEFGHIJKLMN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11101101001 111110101 01000101110 111111001 01010010111 1111111101 010101011010 01011100110 100110111 1010110001 1011011101 10011111 110101110110 111110101 0101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 688 |
Words | 118 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 15 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 541 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 120 |
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"Opening lines of Eþandun: Epic Poem" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/98014/opening-lines-of-e%C3%BEandun%3A-epic-poem>.
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