Analysis of The Stone Fleet
Herman Melville 1819 – 1891
I have a feeling for those ships,
Each worn and ancient one,
With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam:
Ay, it was unkindly done.
But so they serve the Obsolete-
Even so, Stone Fleet!
You'll say I'm doting; do but think
I scudded round the Horn in one-
The Tenedos, a glorious
Good old craft as ever run-
Sunk (how all unmeet!)
With the Old Stone Fleet.
An India ship of fame was she,
Spices and shawls and fans she bore;
A whaler when her wrinkles came-
Turned off! till, spent and poor,
Her bones were sold (escheat)!
Ah! Stone Fleet.
Four were erst patrician keels
(Names attest what families be),
The Kensington, and Richmond too,
Leonidas and Lee:
But now they have their seat
With the Old Stone Fleet.
To scuttle them-a pirate deed-
Sack them, and dismast;
They sunk so slow, they died so hard,
But gurgling dropped at last.
Their ghosts in gales repeat
Woe's us, Stone Fleet!
And all for naught. The waters pass-
Currents will have their way;
Nature is nobody's ally; 'tis well;
The harbor is bettered-will stay.
A failure, and complete,
Was your Old Stone Fleet.
Scheme | xaxabb xaxabB cxxxbb xcxcbB xbxxbb xdxdbb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 110101 111101001 11111 1111010 10111 11110111 1110101 010100 1111101 1111 10111 110011111 10010111 01010101 111101 01011 111 1010101 10111001 01000101 101 111111 10111 11010101 1101 11111111 1100111 110101 1111 01110101 101111 10111011 01011011 010001 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,046 |
Words | 198 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 137 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 114 Views
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