Analysis of The Little Land
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
When at home alone I sit
And am very tired of it,
I have just to shut my eyes
To go sailing through the skies--
To go sailing far away
To the pleasant Land of Play;
To the fairy land afar
Where the Little People are;
Where the clover-tops are trees,
And the rain-pools are the seas,
And the leaves, like little ships,
Sail about on tiny trips;
And above the Daisy tree
Through the grasses,
High o'erhead the Bumble Bee
Hums and passes.
In that forest to and fro
I can wander, I can go;
See the spider and the fly,
And the ants go marching by,
Carrying parcels with their feet
Down the green and grassy street.
I can in the sorrel sit
Where the ladybird alit.
I can climb the jointed grass
And on high
See the greater swallows pass
In the sky,
And the round sun rolling by
Heeding no such things as I.
Through that forest I can pass
Till, as in a looking-glass,
Humming fly and daisy tree
And my tiny self I see,
Painted very clear and neat
On the rain-pool at my feet.
Should a leaflet come to land
Drifting near to where I stand,
Straight I'll board that tiny boat
Round the rain-pool sea to float.
Little thoughtful creatures sit
On the grassy coasts of it;
Little things with lovely eyes
See me sailing with surprise.
Some are clad in armour green--
(These have sure to battle been!)--
Some are pied with ev'ry hue,
Black and crimson, gold and blue;
Some have wings and swift are gone;--
But they all look kindly on.
When my eyes I once again
Open, and see all things plain:
High bare walls, great bare floor;
Great big knobs on drawer and door;
Great big people perched on chairs,
Stitching tucks and mending tears,
Each a hill that I could climb,
And talking nonsense all the time--
O dear me,
That I could be
A sailor on a the rain-pool sea,
A climber in the clover tree,
And just come back a sleepy-head,
Late at night to go to bed.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGHGH IIJJKKAALJLJJJ LLGGKKMMNN AABBXXOOXX XXPPQQRRGGGGSS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111 01101011 1111111 1110101 1110101 1010111 1010101 1010101 1010111 0011101 0011101 1011101 0010101 1010 110101 1010 0110101 1110111 1010001 0011101 10010111 1010101 1100101 10101 1110101 011 1010101 001 0011101 1011111 1110111 1100101 1010101 0110111 1010101 1011111 1010111 1011111 1111101 1011111 1010101 1010111 1011101 1110101 1110101 1111101 111111 1010101 1110111 1111101 1111101 1001111 111111 1111101 1110111 1010101 1011111 01010101 111 1111 010100111 01000101 01110101 1111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,847 |
Words | 358 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 14, 10, 10, 14 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 284 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 25, 2023
- 1:48 min read
- 271 Views
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"The Little Land" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31703/the-little-land>.
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