Analysis of In Guernsey - To Theodore Watts
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
The heavenly bay, ringed round with cliffs and moors,
Storm-stained ravines, and crags that lawns inlay,
Soothes as with love the rocks whose guard secures
The heavenly bay.
O friend, shall time take ever this away,
This blessing given of beauty that endures,
This glory shown us, not to pass but stay?
Though sight be changed for memory, love ensures
What memory, changed by love to sight, would say -
The word that seals for ever mine and yours
The heavenly bay.
My mother sea, my fostress, what new strand,
What new delight of waters, may this be,
The fairest found since time's first breezes fanned
My mother sea?
Once more I give me body and soul to thee,
Who hast my soul for ever: cliff and sand
Recede, and heart to heart once more are we.
My heart springs first and plunges, ere my hand
Strike out from shore: more close it brings to me,
More near and dear than seems my fatherland,
My mother sea.
Across and along, as the bay's breadth opens, and o'er us
Wild autumn exults in the wind, swift rapture and strong
Impels us, and broader the wide waves brighten before us
Across and along.
The whole world's heart is uplifted, and knows not wrong;
The whole world's life is a chant to the sea-tide's chorus;
Are we not as waves of the water, as notes of the song?
Like children unworn of the passions and toils that wore us,
We breast for a season the breadth of the seas that throng,
Rejoicing as they, to be borne as of old they bore us
Across and along.
On Dante's track by some funereal spell
Drawn down through desperate ways that lead not back
We seem to move, bound forth past flood and fell
On Dante's track.
The grey path ends: the gaunt rocks gape: the black
Deep hollow tortuous night, a soundless shell,
Glares darkness: are the fires of old grown slack?
Nay, then, what flames are these that leap and swell
As 'twere to show, where earth's foundations crack,
The secrets of the sepulchres of hell
On Dante's track?
By mere men's hands the flame was lit, we know,
From heaps of dry waste whin and casual brands:
Yet, knowing, we scarce believe it kindled so
By mere men's hands.
Above, around, high-vaulted hell expands,
Steep, dense, a labyrinth walled and roofed with woe,
Whose mysteries even itself not understands.
The scorn in Farinata's eyes aglow
Seems visible in this flame: there Geryon stands:
No stage of earth's is here, set forth to show
By mere men's hands.
Night, in utmost noon forlorn and strong, with heart athirst and fasting,
Hungers here, barred up for ever, whence as one whom dreams affright
Day recoils before the low-browed lintel threatening doom and casting
Night.
All the reefs and islands, all the lawns and highlands, clothed with light,
Laugh for love's sake in their sleep outside: but here the night speaks, blasting
Day with silent speech and scorn of all things known from depth to height.
Lower than dive the thoughts of spirit-stricken fear in souls forecasting
Hell, the deep void seems to yawn beyond fear's reach, and higher than sight
Rise the walls and roofs that compass it about with everlasting
Night.
The house accurst, with cursing sealed and signed,
Heeds not what storms about it burn and burst:
No fear more fearful than its own may find
The house accurst.
Barren as crime, anhungered and athirst,
Blank miles of moor sweep inland, sere and blind,
Where summer's best rebukes not winter's worst.
The low bleak tower with nought save wastes behind
Stares down the abyss whereon chance reared and nursed
This type and likeness of the accurst man's mind,
The house accurst.
Beloved and blest, lit warm with love and fame,
The house that had the light of the earth for guest
Hears for his name's sake all men hail its name
Beloved and blest.
This eyrie was the homeless eagle's nest
When storm laid waste his eyrie: hence he came
Again, when storm smote sore his mother's breast.
Bow down men bade us, or be clothed with blame
And mocked for madness: worst, they sware, was best:
But grief shone here, while joy was one with shame,
Beloved and blest.
Scheme | abaB bab abaB cdcD dcd cdcD efeF fef efeF ghgH hgh ghgH ijiJ jij ijiJ kckL lkl klkL mnmC cmn mnmC opoP pop opoP |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01001111101 110101111 1111011101 01001 1111110101 11010110101 1101111111 11111100101 11001111111 0111110101 01001 110111111 1101110111 0101111101 1101 11111100111 1111110101 0101111111 1111010111 1111111111 110111110 1101 010011011100101 1100100111001 1101001110011 01001 011111000111 0111101101110 11111101011101 1101101001111 1110100110111 01011111111111 01001 11011111 1111011111 1111111101 1101 0111011101 1101001011 11010101111 1111111101 1111110101 01010111 1101 1111011111 11111101001 11011011101 1111 0101110101 1101010111 11001001101 0101101 1100011111 1111111111 1111 10110101111010 1111110111111 10101011101001010 1 101010101010111 1111011111101110 111010111111111 1011011101010110 1011111011101011 101011101011010 1 011110101 1111011101 1111011111 011 1011101 111111101 1101011101 01110111101 1100111101 1101010111 011 0101111101 01110110111 1111111111 0101 1101010101 1111110111 0111111101 1111111111 0111011111 1111111111 0101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 4,004 |
Words | 727 |
Sentences | 32 |
Stanzas | 24 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 36 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 132 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:45 min read
- 79 Views
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"In Guernsey - To Theodore Watts" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1333/in-guernsey---to-theodore-watts>.
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