Analysis of O World Of Many Worlds
Wilfred Owen 1893 (Oswestry) – 1918 (Sambre–Oise Canal)
O World of many worlds, O life of lives,
What centre hast thou? Where am I?
O whither is it thy fierce onrush drives?
Fight I, or drift; or stand; or fly?
The loud machinery spins, points work in touch;
Wheels whirl in systems, zone in zone.
Myself having sometime moved with such,
Would strike a centre of mine own.
Lend hand, O Fate, for I am down, am lost!
Fainting by violence of the Dance…
Ah thanks, I stand - the floor is crossed,
And I am where but few advance.
I see men far below me where they swarm…
(Haply above me - be it so!
Does space to compass-points conform,
And can we say a star stands high or low?)
Not more complex the millions of the stars
Than are the hearts of mortal brothers;
As far remote as Neptune from small Mars
Is one man's nature from another's.
But all hold course unalterably fixed;
They follow destinies foreplanned:
I envy not these lives in their faith unmixed,
I would not step with such a band.
To be a meteor, fast, eccentric, lone,
Lawless; in passage through all spheres,
Warning the earth of wider ways unknown
And rousing men with heavenly fears…
This is the track reserved for my endeavour;
Spanless the erring way I wend.
Blackness of darkness is my meed for ever?
And barren plunging without end?
O glorious fear! Those other wandering souls
High burning through that outer bourne
Are lights unto themselves. Fair aureoles
Self-radiated these are worn.
And when in after times those stars return
And strike once more earth's horizon,
They gather many satellites astern,
For they are greater than this system's Sun.
Scheme | ABXB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KEKX DLDL MNMN XOAO XPDP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (90%) Etheree (30%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1111011111 11011111 110111111 11111111 01010011101 11010101 1101111 11010111 1111111111 101100101 11110111 01111101 1111011111 1011111 11110101 0111011111 1110010101 110111010 1101110111 111101010 1111010001 1101001 11011101101 11111101 11010010101 10010111 1001110101 010111001 11010111010 1010111 10110111110 01010011 110011101001 11011101 11100111 1100111 0101011101 01111010 11010101 1111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,538 |
Words | 285 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 122 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 74 Views
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"O World Of Many Worlds" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/38524/o-world-of-many-worlds>.
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