Analysis of Battle Days
George Parsons Lathrop 1851 (Honolulu) – 1898 (New York)
Veteran memories rally to muster
Here at the call of the old battle days:
Cavalry clatter and cannon's hoarse bluster:
All the wild whirl of the fight's broken maze:
Clangor of bugle and flashing of sabre,
Smoke-stifled flags and the howl of the shell,
With earth for a rest place and death for a neighbor,
And dreams of a charge and the deep rebel yell.
Stern was our task in the field where the reaping
Spared the ripe harvest, but laid our men low:
Grim was the sorrow that held us from weeping:
Awful the rush of the strife's ebb and flow.
Swift came the silence - our enemy hiding
Sudden retreat in the cloud-muffled night:
Swift as a hawk-pounce our hill-and-dale riding;
Hundreds on hundreds we caught in their flight!
Hard and incessant the danger and trial,
Laid on our squadrons, that gladly bore all,
Scorning to meet with delay or denial
The summons that rang in the battle-days' call!
Wild days that woke to glory or despair,
And smote the coward soul with sudden shame,
But unto those whose hearts were bold to dare
All things for honor brought eternal fame: -
Lost days, undying days!
With undiminished rays
Here now on us look down,
Illumining our crown
Of leaves memorial, wet with tender dew
For those who nobly died
In fierce self-sacrifice of service true,
Rapt in pure fire of life-disdaining pride;
Men of this soil, who stood
Firm for their country's good,
From night to night, from sun to sun,
Till o'er the living and the slain
A woful dawn that streamed with rain
Wept for their victory dearly won.
Days of the future, prophetic days, -
Silence engulfs the roar of war;
Yet, through all coming years, repeat the praise
Of those leal comrades brave, who come no more!
And when our voices cease,
Long, long renew the chant, the anthem proud,
Which, echoing clear and loud
Through templed aisles of peace,
Like blended tumults of a joyous chime,
Shall tell their valor to a later time.
Shine on this field; and in the eyes of men
Rekindle, if the need shall come again,
That answering light that springs
In beaconing splendor from the soul, and brings
Promise of faith well kept and deed sublime!
Scheme | ABABACACDEDEDFDFGHGH IJIJBBKKLMLMNNOPPO BQBQRSSRTTUUVVT |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10010010110 1101101101 10010010110 1011101101 1110010110 1101001101 111011011010 01101001101 111010011010 10110111011 11010111110 1001101101 110101010010 1001001101 110111010110 1011011011 10010010010 11101011011 1111011010 01011001011 1111110101 0101011101 1101110111 1111010101 110101 10101 111111 1101 11010011101 111101 011101101 10110110101 111111 111101 11111111 110010001 0111111 111100101 110100101 1010111 1111010101 111111111 0110101 1101010101 1100101 11111 110110101 1111010101 1111000111 0101011101 1100111 011010101 1011110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,094 |
Words | 390 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 18, 15 |
Lines Amount | 53 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 557 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 127 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:58 min read
- 2 Views
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"Battle Days" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55377/battle-days>.
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