Question

PLEASE EXPLAIN THE POEM BRIEFLY FOR UNDERSTANDING....


"A NATIONS STRENGTH"

BY - WILLIAM RALPH EMERSON (1833 - 1917)


REFER TO THE POEM.






What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.


THANK YOU.

Answer 1

central idea of the poem is :-

it shows the Patriotic character of a person in a nation . Poet conveys message to it's readers that gold or wealth does not make a nation strong. It is the people who make it strong by suffering a long for the sake of truth