Analysis of Ivar Ingemundson's Lay
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson 1832 (Kvikne) – 1910 (Paris)
Wherefore have I longings,
When to live them strength is lacking?
And wherefore see I,
If I see but sorrow?
Flight of my eye to the great and distant
Dooms it to gales of darkening doubt;
But fleeing backward to the present,
It's prisoned in pain and pity.
For I see a land with no leader,
I see a leader with no land.
The land how heavy-laden
The leader how high his longing!
Might the men but know it,
That he is here among them!
But they see a man in fetters,
And leave him to lie there.
Round the ship a storm is raging,
At the rudder stands a fool. Who can save it?
He, who below the deck is longing,
Half-dead and in fetters.
Hear how they call Thee
And come with arms uplifted!
They have their savior at hand,
And Thou sayest it never?
Shall they, then, all thus perish,
Because the one seems absent?
Wilt Thou not let the fool die,
That life may endure in many?
What means that solemn saying:
One
shall suffer for many?
But many suffer for one.
Oh, what means it?
The wisdom Thou gavest
Wearies me with guesswork.
The light Thou hast dealt me
Leads me to darkness.
Not me alone, moreover,
But millions and millions!
Space unending spans not all the questions
From earth here and up toward heaven.
Weakness cowers in walls of cloisters,
But wills of power press onward,
And thronging, with longing,
They thrust one another out of the lands.-
Whither? Before their eyes is night,
'In Nazareth a light is set!' one says aloud,
A hundred thousand say it;
All see it now: To Nazareth!
But the half-part perish from hunger by the wayside,
The other half by the sword of the heathen,
The pest awaits the pilgrim in Nazareth,-
Wast Thou there, or wast Thou not there?
Oh, where art Thou?
The whole world now awakens,
And on the way is searching
And seeking after Thee!
Or wast Thou in the hunger?
Wast Thou in the pest?
Wast Thou in the sword of the heathen?
Saltest Thou with the salt of wrath?
Refinest Thou with suffering's fire?
Hast Thou millions of millions hidden in Thy future,
Whom Thou thus wilt save to freedom?
Oh, to them are the thousands that now suffer
But
one
,
And that one I would beseech Thee for-
Nothing!
I follow a little brook
And find it leads to an ocean,
I see here a little drop,
And swelling in mist it mounts a mighty cloud.
See, how I'm tossed so will-less
By troublous waves of doubt,
The wind overturned my little boat,
The wreck is all my refuge.
Lead me, lead me,
I see nowhere land!
Lift me, lift me,
I nowhere footing find!
Scheme | xabx cdce fgha ijkl aiak exgf xcbe a Hehi cxex fmmh kxax xnio xhol xmae fxh xffj fxH fa xhxn xdxx egex |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110 11111110 0111 111110 1111101010 111111001 110101010 11001010 111011110 11010111 0111010 01011110 101111 1111011 11101010 011111 10101110 10101011111 110101110 110010 11111 0111100 1111011 011110 1111110 0101110 1111011 11101010 1111010 1 110110 1101011 1111 01011 1111 011111 11110 1101010 110010 1010111010 111010110 10101110 11110110 01110 1110101101 10011111 010001111101 0101011 11111100 101110110101 01011011010 01010100100 11111111 1111 0111010 0101110 010101 1110010 11001 110011010 1110111 111110 1110110100110 11111110 11110101110 1 1 1 011110111 10 1100101 01111110 1110101 01001110101 1111111 11111 01101101 0111110 1111 1111 1111 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,404 |
Words | 472 |
Sentences | 40 |
Stanzas | 21 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 82 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 90 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 22 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 67 Views
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"Ivar Ingemundson's Lay" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4357/ivar-ingemundson%27s-lay>.
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