Analysis of Wealth
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)
Who shall tell what did befall,
Far away in time, when once,
Over the lifeless ball,
Hung idle stars and suns?
What god the element obeyed?
Wings of what wind the lichen bore,
Wafting the puny seeds of power,
Which, lodged in rock, the rock abrade?
And well the primal pioneer
Knew the strong task to it assigned,
Patient through Heaven's enormous year
To build in matter home for mind.
From air the creeping centuries drew
The matted thicked low and wide,
This must the leaves of ages strew
The granite slab to clothe and hide,
Ere wheat can wave its golden pride.
What smiths, and in what furnace, rolled
(In dizzy aeons dim and mute
The reeling brain can ill compute)
Copper and iron, lead and gold?
What oldest star the fame can save
Of races perishing to pave
The planet with a floor of lime?
Dust is their pyramid and mole:
Who saw that ferns and palms were pressed
Under the trembling mountain's breast,
In the safe herbal of the coal?
But when the quarried means were piled,
All is waste and worthless, till
Arrives the wise selecting will,
And,out of slime and chaos, Wit
Draws the threads of fair and fit.
Then temples rose, and towns, and marts,
The shop of toil, the hall of arts;
Then flew the sail across the seas
To feed the North from tropic trees;
The storm-wind wove, the torrent span,
Where they were bid the rivers ran;
New slaves fulfilled the poet's dream,
Galvanic wire, strong-shouldered steam.
Then docks were built, and crops were stored,
And ingots added to the hoard.
But, though light-hearted man forget,
Remembering Matter pays her debt:
Still, though her motes and masses, draw
Electric thrills and ties of Law,
Which bind the strength of Nature wild
To the conscience of a child.
Scheme | ABACDEFDGHGHIJIJJKLLKMMNOPPOQRRSSTTUUVVWWXXYYZZQQ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111101 1010111 100101 110101 11010001 11110101 100101110 1101011 0101001 10111101 101100101 11010111 110101001 011101 11011101 01011101 11111101 11001101 0101101 01011101 10010101 11010111 11010011 01010111 11110001 11110101 100100101 00110101 1101101 1110101 01010101 1110101 1011101 11010101 01110111 11010101 11011101 01110101 11010101 11010101 010101101 11010101 01010101 11110101 010010101 11010101 01010111 11011101 1010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,719 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 49 |
Lines Amount | 49 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,346 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 306 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 24, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 112 Views
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"Wealth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29898/wealth>.
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