Analysis of Astarte

Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)



ACROSS the dripping ridges,
       O, look, luxurious night!
   She comes, the bright-haired beauty,
       My luminous delight!
       My luminous delight!
   So hush, ye shores, your roar,
That my soul may sleep, forgetting
   Dead Love’s wild Nevermore!
   Astarte, Syrian sister,
       Your face is wet with tears;
   I think you know the secret
       One heart hath held for years!
       One heart hath held for years!
   But hide your hapless love,
And my sweet—my Syrian sister,
   Dead Love’s wild Nevermore!

Ah, Helen Hope in heaven,
       My queen of long ago,
   I’ve swooned with adoration,
       But could not tell you so,
       Or dared not tell you so,
   My radiant queen of yore!
And you’ve passed away and left me
   Dead Love’s wild Nevermore!

Astarte knoweth, darling,
       Of eyes that once did weep,
   What time entranced Passion
       Hath kissed your lips in sleep;
       Hath kissed your lips in sleep;
   But now those tears are o’er,
Gone, my saint, with many a moan to
   Dead Love’s wild Nevermore!

If I am past all crying,
       What thoughts are maddening me,
   Of you, my darling, dying
       Upon the lone, wide sea,
       Upon the lone, wide sea,
   Ah! hush, ye shores, your roar,
That my soul may sleep, forgetting
   Dead Love’s wild Nevermore!


Scheme xabAAcDCexxFFxeC ghghhcbC digIIcxC dbdBBcDC
Poetic Form Etheree  (33%)
Metre 0101010 1101001 1101110 110001 110001 111111 11111010 11110 110010 111111 1111010 111111 111111 111101 011110010 11110 1101010 111101 111010 111111 111111 1100111 01101011 11110 1110 111111 110110 111101 111101 111111 111110011 11110 1111110 1111001 1111010 010111 010111 111111 11111010 11110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,331
Words 205
Sentences 13
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 16, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 220
Words per stanza (avg) 51
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
78

Henry Kendall

Thomas Henry Kendall was a nineteenth-century Australian author and bush poet, who was particularly known for his poems and tales set in a natural environment setting. more…

All Henry Kendall poems | Henry Kendall Books

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