Analysis of Courage
Claude McKay 1889 (Clarendon Parish) – 1948 (Chicago)
O lonely heart so timid of approach,
Like the shy tropic flower that shuts its lips
To the faint touch of tender finger tips:
What is your word? What question would you broach?
Your lustrous-warm eyes are too sadly kind
To mask the meaning of your dreamy tale,
Your guarded life too exquisitely frail
Against the daggers of my warring mind.
There is no part of the unyielding earth,
Even bare rocks where the eagles build their nest,
Will give us undisturbed and friendly rest.
No dewfall softens this vast belt of dearth.
But in the socket-chiseled teeth of strife,
That gleam in serried files in all the lands,
We may join hungry, understanding hands,
And drink our share of ardent love and life.
Scheme | ABBA CDDC EFFE GHHG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1101110101 10110101111 1011110101 1111110111 1101111101 1101011101 110111001 0101011101 1111100101 10111010111 111010101 111011111 1001010111 110110101 111100101 01101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 706 |
Words | 126 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 140 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 37 sec read
- 231 Views
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"Courage" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6849/courage>.
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