Analysis of Man Sails The Deep Awhile
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
MAN sails the deep awhile;
Loud runs the roaring tide;
The seas are wild and wide;
O'er many a salt, o'er many a desert mile,
The unchained breakers ride,
The quivering stars beguile.
Hope bears the sole command;
Hope, with unshaken eyes,
Sees flaw and storm arise;
Hope, the good steersman, with unwearying hand,
Steers, under changing skies,
Unchanged toward the land.
O wind that bravely blows!
O hope that sails with all
Where stars and voices call!
O ship undaunted that forever goes
Where God, her admiral,
His battle signal shows!
What though the seas and wind
Far on the deep should whelm
Colours and sails and helm?
There, too, you touch that port that you designed -
There, in the mid-seas' realm,
Shall you that haven find.
Well hast thou sailed: now die,
To die is not to sleep.
Still your true course you keep,
O sailor soul, still sailing for the sky;
And fifty fathom deep
Your colours still shall fly.
Scheme | ABBABA CDDCDC EFFEXE GHHGHG IJJIJI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (23%) Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 110101 110101 011101 10100110100101 01101 0100101 110101 110101 110101 1011111 110101 010101 111101 111111 110101 1101010101 110100 110101 110101 110111 10101 1111111101 100111 111101 111111 111111 111111 1101110101 010101 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 896 |
Words | 166 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 143 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 152 Views
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