Analysis of The Wind Blew Shrill And Smart

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



THE wind blew shrill and smart,
And the wind awoke my heart
Again to go a-sailing o'er the sea,
To hear the cordage moan
And the straining timbers groan,
And to see the flying pennon lie a-lee.

O sailor of the fleet,
It is time to stir the feet!
It's time to man the dingy and to row!
It's lay your hand in mine
And it's empty down the wine,
And it's drain a health to death before we go!

To death, my lads, we sail;
And it's death that blows the gale
And death that holds the tiller as we ride.
For he's the king of all
In the tempest and the squall,
And the ruler of the Ocean wild and wide!


Scheme AABCCB DDEFFE GGHIIH
Poetic Form
Metre 011101 0010111 01110101001 110101 0010101 0110101101 110101 1111101 1111010011 111101 0110101 01101110111 111111 0111101 0111010111 110111 0010001 00101010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 584
Words 125
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 149
Words per stanza (avg) 41
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
124

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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