Analysis of The Irishman's Song

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



The stars may dissolve, and the fountain of light
May sink into ne'er ending chaos and night,
Our mansions must fall, and earth vanish away,
But thy courage O Erin! may never decay.

See! the wide wasting ruin extends all around,
Our ancestors' dwellings lie sunk on the ground,
Our foes ride in triumph throughout our domains,
And our mightiest heroes lie stretched on the plains.

Ah! dead is the harp which was wont to give pleasure,
Ah! sunk is our sweet country's rapturous measure,
But the war note is waked, and the clangour of spears,
The dread yell of Sloghan yet sounds in our ears.

Ah! where are the heroes! triumphant in death,
Convulsed they recline on the blood sprinkled heath,
Or the yelling ghosts ride on the blast that sweeps by,
And 'my countrymen! vengeance!' incessantly cry.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF XXGG
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 01101001011 11011101001 101011011001 111011011001 101101001101 10101011101 1011010011001 0101001011101 111011111110 1111011010010 10111100111 01111110101 11101001001 1101101101 101011101111 011001001001
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 802
Words 144
Sentences 13
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 39
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 157
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
81

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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