Analysis of Hannibal's Oath
Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)
AND the night was dark and calm,
There was not a breath of air,
The leaves of the grove were still,
As the presence of death were there;
Only a moaning sound
Came from the distant sea,
It was as if, like life,
It had no tranquillity.
A warrior and a child
Pass'd through the sacred wood,
Which, like a mystery,
Around the temple stood.
The warrior's brow was worn
With the weight of casque and plume,
And sun-burnt was his cheek,
And his eye and brow were gloom.
The child was young and fair,
But the forehead large and high,
And the dark eyes' flashing light
Seem'd to feel their destiny.
They enter'd in the temple,
And stood before the shrine,
It stream'd with the victim's blood,
With incense and with wine.
The ground rock'd beneath their feet,
The thunder shook the dome,
But the boy stood firm, and swore
Eternal hate to Rome.
There's a page in history
O'er which tears of blood were wept,
And that page is the record
How that oath of hate was kept.
Scheme | XAXA BCXB XDCD XEXE AXXC XFXF XGXG CHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 0011101 1110111 0110101 10101101 100101 110101 111111 1111 0100001 110101 110100 010101 01111 1011101 011111 0110101 011101 1010101 0011101 1111100 1100010 010101 1110101 101011 0110111 010101 1011101 010111 1010100 10111101 0111001 1111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 933 |
Words | 182 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 92 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 141 Views
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"Hannibal's Oath" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/25689/hannibal%27s-oath>.
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