Analysis of In The Harbour: Possibilities

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)



Where are the Poets, unto whom belong
The Olympian heights; whose singing shafts were sent
Straight to the mark, and not from bows half bent,
But with the utmost tension of the thong?
Where are the stately argosies of song,
Whose rushing keels made music as they went
Sailing in search of some new continent,
With all sail set, and steady winds and strong?
Perhaps there lives some dreamy boy, untaught
In schools, some graduate of the field or street,
Who shall become a master of the art,
An admiral sailing the high seas of thought,
Fearless and first, and steering with his fleet
For lands not yet laid down in any chart.


Scheme ABBAABCABDEFDE
Poetic Form
Metre 1101010101 001001110101 1101011111 110110101 11010111 1101110111 1001111100 1111010101 011111011 01110010111 1101010101 11001001111 1001010111 1111110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 620
Words 115
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 497
Words per stanza (avg) 113
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
159

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. more…

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