Analysis of Song of the Zetland Fisherman
Sir Walter Scott 1771 (College Wynd, Edinburgh) – 1832 (Abbotsford, Roxburghshire)
Farewell, merry maidens, to song, and to laugh,
For the brave lads of Westra are bound to the Haaf;
And we must have labour, and hunger, and pain,
Ere we dance with the maids of Dunrossness again.
For now, in our trim boats of Noroway deal,
We must dance on the waves, with the porpoise and seal
The breeze it shall pipe, so it pipe not too high,
And the gull be our songstress whene'er she flits by.
Sing on, my brave bird, while we follow, like thee,
By bank, shoal, and quicksand, the swarms of the sea;
And when twenty-score fishes are straining our line,
Sing louder, brave bird, for their spoils shall be thine.
We'll sing while we bait, and we'll sing while we haul
For the deeps of the Haaf have enough for us all:
There is torsk for the gentle, and skate for the carle,
And there's wealth for bold Magnus, the son of the earl.
Huzza! my brave comrades, give way for the Haaf,
We shall sooner come back to the dance and the laugh;
For life without mirth is a lamp without oil;
Then, mirth and long life to the bold Magnus Troil!
Scheme | ABXX CCDD EEFF GGXX BAXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (40%) |
Metre | 1101011011 101111011101 0111101001 1111011101 1101011111 111101101001 01111111111 00111011111 11111111011 1110101101 0110110110101 11011111111 11111011111 101101101111 1111010011010 011111001101 111111101 111011101001 11011101011 11011101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,025 |
Words | 201 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 21, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 52 Views
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"Song of the Zetland Fisherman" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/35554/song-of-the-zetland-fisherman>.
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